mmm^m 




i 



BITS OF PASTURE; 



OR, 



Handfuls of Grass for the Lord's Hungry Sheep, 



BEING 

SELECTIONS FROM SERMONS 
y 

OF 

J. R. MILLER, 

Author of "Week-Day Religion," "Practical Religion," 
"Home-Making," etc., etc. 

CULLED AND ARRANGED BY MARY A. BUTLER. 



" He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." 



*3 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, 

No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 



3^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OP THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 



ALL EIGHTS RESERVED. 



The Library 
op Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Westcott & Thomson, 

Stereotypers and Electrolypers, Philada. 



TO THE 

MEMBERS OF DR. MILLER'S BIBLE-CLASS, 



AND TO THE 



LARGER CLASS WHICH HE TEACHES IN THE PAGES 



THE WESTMINSTEE TEACHER, 

THIS LITTLE BOOK 

is 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY THE COMPILER. 



PREFACE, 



While fulfilling the promise, " I will feed my 
flock," the Shepherd may not lead us by waters of 
rest and quietness all the way. But always, accord- 
ing to our need, there are bits of pasture, and cheered 
and strengthened by these earnests of "green pas- 
tures" and "still waters," we follow on. 

These thoughts were gathered from manuscript ser- 
mons read during several shut-in years. Because stim- 
ulus and counsel, comfort and sunshine, have been 
found in these handfuls, with the earnest hope that 
they may go on, each day blessing and helping others 
to bless, they are tied together " in His name." 

M. A. B. 

5 



BITS OF PASTURE. 



Sanuarg !♦ 

"the lord will provide." 

YMRITT& deep in your heart this New Year's Day 
this word of sublime confidence, Jehovah-jireh. 
It tells you that you can trust God always, that no 
promise of his ever fails, that he doeth all things 
well, that out of all seeming loss and destruction of 
human hopes he brings blessing. You have not passed 
this way heretofore. There will be sorrows and joys, 
failures and successes, this year, just as there were last 
year. You cannot forecast individual experiences. 
You cannot see a step before your feet. Yet Jeho- 
vah-jireh calls you to enter the new year with calm 
trust. It bids you put away all anxieties and fore- 
bodings — " The Lord will provide." 

7 



Sanuarg X. 

CHRIST OUR BIOGRAPHER. 

"IXTE need not trouble to keep diaries of our good 
deeds or sacrifices, or to write autobiographies 
with pages of record for the things we have done. 
We may safely let our life write its own record, or let 
Christ be our biographer. He will never forget any- 
thing we do, and the judgment day will reveal every- 
thing. The lowliest services and the obscurest deeds 
will then be manifested. 



January 2* 

TRUE LIVING. 

T IFE means far more than many of us ever dream 
of. It is not merely passing through the world 
with a fair measure of comforts, with enough bread 
for our hunger, with enough raiment to keep us warm. 
Life means growth into the image of Christ himself, into 
strength, into well-rounded character, into disciplined 
manhood and womanhood, into the blessed peace of 
God. But the peace into which he guides us is vic- 
tory over all the trials, a quietness and confidence 
which no external circumstances can break. 



Sanuarg 3. 

THE BIBLE IN CHARACTER-BUILDING. 

PHAEACTER never can be strong, noble and beau- 
fill, nor can conduct be worthy of intelligent be- 
ings bearing God's image, if Scripture truth be not 
wrought into the very soul by personal search and 
pondering. Let us not stay for ever in the primer 
of religious knowledge, amid the easy things that we 
learned at our mother's knee. There are glorious 
things beyond these: let us go on to learn them. 
The word of Christ can get into your heart to dwell 
in you and transform you only through intelligent 
thought and pondering. 

Samtarg 4* 

FINDING OUR MISSION. 

TXTE need never be anxious about our mission. We 
need never perplex ourselves in the least in try- 
ing to know what God wants us to do, what place he 
wants us to fill. Our whole duty is to do well the 
work of the present hour. There are some people 
who waste entire years wondering what God would 
have them do, and expecting to have their life-work 
pointed out to them. But that is not the divine way. 

9 



Sanuarg 4* 

If you want to know God's plan for you, do God's will 
each day ; that is God's plan for you to-day. If he 
has a wider sphere, a larger place for you, he will 
bring you to it at the right time, and then that will 
be God's plan for you and your mission. 

" Our lives we cut on a curious plan, 
Shaping them, as it were, for man ; 
But God, with better art than we, 
Shapes them for eternity." 

Satutarg 5* 

PRAYER IN BUSY DAYS. 

TT is in prayer that God shows his face to his chil- 
dren, that they have visions of his beauty and 
glory, that the sweet things of his love come down 
as gifts into their hearts, and that they are trans- 
formed into his likeness. If you would be blessed, 
get many seasons of prayer into your busy, harassed, 
tempted, struggling life. It is in these quiet moments 
that you really grow. Somewhere in every vexed, fe- 
verish day get a little " silent time " for prayer. It 
will bring heaven down into your heart and make 
you strong for service. 

10 



Samtarg 6* 

THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST. 

jTNLESS words mean nothing, unless the Scriptures 
cheat us with poetical images and illusions, Christ 
feels our every grief and every struggle, and sympa- 
thizes with us in each one. Kemember how his heart 
responded when he was on earth to all human need. 
Sorrow stirred his compassion. Every cry of distress 
went to the depths of his soul. That heart is still the 
same. When angels are thronging about him, and a 
poor weary sufferer in some lowly home on earth or a 
stricken penitent crouching in some darkness reaches 
out a trembling finger-tip of faith and touches the hem 
of his garment, he turns about with loving look and 
asks, "Who touched me?" 

Sanuarg 7* 

YES AND NO. 

HTHERE is tremendous power in the little monosyl- 
lable " No " when it is spoken resolutely and cour- 
ageously. It has often been like a giant rock by the 
sea as it has encountered and hurled back the mighty 
waves of temptation. It is a majestic power, the 

11 



Samtarg 7* 

power to say "No" to everything that is not right. 
But it is just as important to learn to say "Yes." 
There come to us offers and solicitations we must not 
reject, and opportunities we must not thrust away. 
Life is not all resistance and defence. Whatever is 
wrong we must meet with a firm, strong, uncompro- 
mising "No;" but whatever is right we should wel- 
come into our life with a hearty, cheerful "Yes." 



Sattuarg 8* 

THE DISCIPLINE OP DRUDGERY. 

THHERE is nothing like life's drudgery to make men 
and women of us. You chafe under it. You sigh 
for leisure, to be freed from bondage to hours, to duties, 
to tasks, to appointments, to rules, to the treadmill 
round. Yet this is God's school for you. It may be 
a cross. Yes ; but all true blessing comes to us hid- 
den under the ruggedness and the heaviness of a 
cross. We do not grow most in the easiest life. 
Accept your treadmill round, your plodding, your 
dull task-work, and do all well — do always your best 
— and you will grow into strong, noble character. 

12 



Sanuarg 9* 

god's giving. 

POD does not dole out help by little grains. He 
pours out blessings until there is no more room to 
receive. He gives until our emptiness is altogether 
filled. He is never done giving when you cease re- 
ceiving — he could give far more. Nothing limits the 
supplies we get from God save our capacity to take. 
He would give infinitely if we had room to receive in- 
finitely, and the only reason we are not supplied in this 
glorious way, according to God's riches, is because we 
will not take all that God would give. The only thing 
that stands in the way of our being blessed to the full 
is the smallness of our faith. 



January 10. 

OUR CLUMSY HANDS. 

jWTOST of us are awkward in doing even our most 
loving deeds. We must learn to be patient, 
therefore, with people's awkwardness and clumsiness. 
Their hearts may be gentler than their hands. Do 
not misinterpret their actions, finding enmity where 

13 



Samtarg 10* 

purest love is, indifference where affection is warmest, 
slights where honor was meant. Away with your 
petty suspicions! Be patient even with people's 
faults. Let us train ourselves to find the best we 
can in every act of others, to believe the best always 
of people and their actions, and to find some beauty 
in everything. 



Sanuarg U* 

god's better answer. 

POD many times answers our prayers not by bring- 
ing down his will to ours, but by lifting us up to 
himself. We grow strong, so as to need no longer to 
cry for relief. We can bear the heavy load without 
asking to have it lightened. We can keep the sorrow 
now and endure it. We can go on in quiet peace 
without the new blessing which we thought so neces- 
sary. We have not been saved from the battle we 
shrank so from entering, but we have fought it through 
and have gained the victory. Is not victoriousness in 
conflict better than being freed from the conflict ? Is 
not peace in the midst of the storm and the strife bet- 
ter than to be lifted altogether over the strife ? 

14 



Sanuarg 12. 

TOUCHING OTHERS. 

HPHEKE are some good people who seem to want to 
be your friends and to do you good, but they stay 
at a distance, and never come near you. Then there 
are others who draw close to you, and look into your 
eyes and touch you with their hands. You know the 
difference between these two ways of helping. The 
former persons give you only cold help, with no part 
of themselves, no tender sympathy ; the latter may give 
you really less of material help, but they pour a por- 
tion of their own warm life into your soul. Christ 
never withheld his touch ; he always gave part of him- 
self. We should be the touch of Christ to others. His 
love should tingle in our very fingers when they touch 
others. 

Sanuarg 13. 

FIDELITY TO DUTY. 

HTOO often we want to know how duty is going to 
come out before we are ready to accept it and do 
it. But that is wrong, for we have nothing whatever 
to do with the cost or with the outcome of duty ; we 
have to know only that it is duty, and then go right 

15 



Samtarjj 13. 

on and do it. The true way to live is to bring to each 
duty that comes to our hand our wisest thought and 
our best skill, doing what appears to us at the time to 
be the right thing to do, and then leaving it, never re- 
gretting nor fretting about results. God has promised 
to guide us, and if we are living in true relations to 
him we may expect guidance moment by moment as 
we go on. 

Sanuarg 14* 

HAVING — GIVING. 

TT is not having that makes men great. A man may 
have the largest abundance of God's gifts, — of 
money, of mental acquirements, of power, of heart- 
possessions and qualities; yet if he only holds and 
hoards what he has for himself, he is not great. Men 
are great only in the measure in which they use what 
they have to bless others. We are God's stewards, and 
the gifts that come to us are his, not ours, and are to be 
used for him as he would use them. When we come 
to Christ's feet in consecration, we lay all we have be- 
fore him. He accepts our gifts, and then, putting them 
back into our hands, he says, " Go now and use them 
in my name among the people." 

16 



Samtarg 15* 

AN EYE FOR MOTES. 
TXTE ought not to expend all our keen-sightedness in 
discovering our neighbor's little faults. By some 
strange perverseness in human nature we have far 
keener eyes for flaws and blemishes in others than 
for the lovely things that are in them. Not many of 
us go about talking to every one we meet about our 
neighbor's good points and praising the lovely things 
in him. Not a few of us, however, can tell of an in- 
definite number of faults in many of our neighbors. 
Would it not be well to change this, and begin gossip- 
ing about the good and beautiful things in others ? 

Sanuarg 16* 

SILENCE THAT IS NOT GOLDEN. 
TS any miserliness so mean as that which holds loving 

and gentle words in the heart unspoken when dear 
lives are starving close beside us which our words 
would save and feed? Use your gift of speech to 
give comfort, joy, cheer and hope to all about you. 
Use it to encourage the weary and disheartened, to 
warn those who are treading in paths of danger, to 
inspire the lethargic and indolent with high and holy 
motives, to kindle the fires of heavenly aspiration on 
cold heart-altars. 

2 17 



Sanuarg 17* 

CHRIST IN US. 

XX/'E should not be satisfied with any small measures 
of attainment. If Christ dwells in each Chris- 
tian, we should all be new incarnations. Christ him- 
self was the incarnation of God. He said, " He that 
hath seen me hath seen the Father. ,, If we are Chris- 
tians, we are new incarnations of Christ. We should 
be able to say to men: "Look at me, and see what 
Christ is like." The beauties of Christ should be seen 
in us. This will become true just in the measure in 
which the Christ in us is allowed to rule us and trans- 
form our lives. It should be our aim and prayer that 
the divine abiding in us may be without hindrance, 
and that no part of our life shall remain unfilled. 

Sanuarg \&. 

PRACTICAL KINDNESS. 

IT INDNESS must be practical, not merely emotional 
and sentimental. It should not be satisfied with 
good wishes, sympathetic words, or even with prayers ; 
it should put itself into some form that will do good. 
There are times when even prayer is a mockery. It is 
sometimes our duty to answer our own requests, to be 

18 



Samtarg \$. 

ourselves the messengers we ask God to send to help 
others. We are God's angels when we find ourselves 
in the presence of human needs and sorrows which we 
can supply or comfort. Expressions of pity or sym- 
pathy are mockeries when we try to do nothing to re- 
lieve the distress. 

Sanuarg 19. 

BEING — DOING. 

TPHERE is a silent personal influence, like a shadow, 
that goes out from every one, and this influence is 
always leaving results and impressions wherever it 
touches. You cannot live a day and not touch some 
other life. Wherever you go your shadow falls on 
others, and they are either better or worse for your 
presence. Our influence depends upon what we are 
more than upon what we do. It is by living a beau- 
tiful life that we bless the world. I do not under- 
estimate holy activities. Good deeds must charac- 
terize every true life. Our hands must do mighty 
works. But if the life itself is noble, beautiful, holy, 
Christ-like, one that is itself a benediction, an inspi- 
ration, the worth of the influence is many times 
multiplied. 

19 



Samtarg 20. 

PREACHING BY SHINING. 

'THERE is not a Christian who cannot preach ser- 
mons every day, at home and among neighbors 
and friends, by the beauty of holiness in his own com- 
mon life. Wherever a true Christian goes his life 
ought to be an inspiration. Our silent influence 
ought to touch other lives with blessing. People 
ought to feel stronger, happier, more earnest after 
meeting us. Our very faces ought to shed light, 
shining like holy lamps into sad and weary hearts. 
Our lives ought to be benedictions to human sorrow 
and need all about us. 

Sanuarg 2\. 

TOO LATE AFTER-THOUGHTS. 

'THERE is a time for the doing of the duties which 
are assigned to us. If we will do them in their own 
time, there will be a blessing in them. If, however, we do 
not perform them at the right moment, we need scarcely 
trouble ourselves to do them at all. The time to show 
interest and affection to any sufferer is while the suf- 
fering is being endured, not next day, when it is all 
over, when the person is well again or — dead. Oh, 

20 



Sanuarg 21* 

there are so many of us whose best and truest thoughts 
are always after-thoughts, too late to be of any use ! 
We see when all is over what noble things we might 
have done if we had only thought. 

Sanuarg 22. 

SERVING IN LOVE. 

^UlTOKK in Christ's vineyard, gifts to missions, char- 
ities dispensed to the poor, money given to good 
causes, ministries among the sick and the needy, — these 
things please Christ only when there is in them all love 
for him, when they are done truly for him, in his name. 
We need to look honestly into our hearts while we crowd 
our days with Christian activity, to know what the 
spirit is which prompts it all. " Lovest thou me f" 
is the Master's question as each piece of service is ren- 
dered, as each piece of work is done. There is no 
other true motive. 

January 23. 

THE HIDING AWAY OF SELF. 

1V[0 grace shines more brightly in a Christian than 

humility. Wherever self comes in it mars the 

beauty of the work we are doing. Seek to do your 

21 



Samtarg 23* 

work noiselessly. Do not try to draw attention to 
yourself, to make men know that you did this beauti- 
ful thing. Be content to pour your rich life into other 
wasted, weary lives, and see them blessed and made 
more beautiful, and then hide away and let Christ 
have the honor. Work for God's eye, and even then 
do not think much about reward. Seek to be a bless- 
ing, and never think of self-advancement. Do not 
worry about credit for your work or about monu- 
ments: be content to do good in Christ's name. 

Sanuarg 24* 



1 UU r E pray earnestly, pressing our very heart into the 
heavens, but it is for the doing of our own will 
that we ask, not for the doing of God's will. Is it the 
true child-spirit for us to insist on having our way with 
God, to press our will without regard to his ? Are we 
not God's children? Is it not ours to learn obedience 
and submission in all things to him? No prayer is 
acceptable to God which, after all its intensity and 
importunity, is not still referred to God and left to 
his superior wisdom. Who but he knows what is 
best for us? 

22 



Sanuarg 25* 

SPIRITUAL GREATNESS, 

C PIEITUAL greatness — sanctified character, beauty 
of soul, the likeness of God upon the life, heart- 
qualities — shall endure for ever. Into this true spirit- 
ual greatness God wants to train every one of us. 
Many Christians grow sadly disheartened because 
they seem never to become any better. Year after 
year the struggle goes on with the old tempers and 
ugly dispositions, the old selfishness, pride and hate- 
fulness, and they appear never to be growing victori- 
ous. Yet Christ is a most patient teacher. He never 
wearies of our slowness and dullness as scholars. He 
will teach the same lesson over and over until we have 
learned it. If we only persevere, he will never tire 
of us, and his gentleness will make us great. 

Sanuarg 26. 

PATIENT LOVE. 

"AS I have loved you " means love that is sweet, 
fragrant and gentle to men who have many rude- 
nesses and meannesses, who are selfish and faulty, with 
sharp corners and but partially sanctified lives and 
very vexing ways. If all Christian people were an- 
gelic, and you were too, it would not be har^ to love 

23 



Sattuarg 26. 

all ; but as many other people are not yet angelic, you 
will still have need of patience, even if you are an- 
gelic yourself; which probably you are not. 

Sanuarg 27. 

CONTROL OF TEMPER. 

'THE worst-tempered people may be made gentle and 
loving in all speech, act and disposition by the re- 
newing and transforming power of divine grace. God 
can take the jangled keys and put them in tune if we 
will but put them into his hand. But we must strive 
ourselves to be sweet-tempered. We must watch the 
rising anger and quickly choke it back. We must keep 
down the ugly dispositions. We must learn to control 
ourselves, our tempers, our feelings, our passions, our 
tongues. We must seek to develop the gentle things 
and crowd out the nettles. The discipline is not easy, 
but the lesson can be mastered. 

Sattuarg 28. 

"as we forgive." 

TN the model prayer which Christ gave to his disci- 
ples he linked together the divine and the human 

24 



Sanuarg 28* 

forgiveness. While we pray to God to forgive our 
countless and enormous sins, we are taught to extend 
to others who harm us in little ways the same forgive- 
ness which we ask for ourselves. Let us keep no bit- 
terness in our hearts for a moment. Let us put away 
all grudges and all ill feelings. Let us remember the 
good things others do to us and forget the evil things. 
Then we can pray sincerely, " Forgive us as we for- 
give. 5 ' If we cannot do this, I do not know how we 
are going to pray at all for forgiveness. 



Sattuarg 29* 

THE TEST OP LOVE. 

nrHEKE is a great difference between love for people 
you never saw and never shall see and those with 
whom you mingle in close relations. There are some 
persons whose souls glow with compassionate affection 
for the Chinese, the Hindus, the Japanese, who yet ut- 
terly fail in loving their nearest neighbors, those w 7 ho 
jostle against them every day in business, in pew, in 
church-aisle, in society. The test of Christian love is 
that it does not fail even when brought into closest 
contact, into the severest frictions, of actual living. 

25 



Sanuarg 30. 

WINNING SOULS. 

AA^E must love those we seek to save, but we must 
love Christ more ; we must love them because we 
love Christ, because he loves them, because he gave 
himself for them. We must strive to win souls not 
for ourselves, but for Christ. It is not enough to get 
people to love us ; we must get them to love our Sav- 
iour, to trust in him and to commit their lives to him. 
We must hide ourselves away out of sight. He who 
is thinking of his own honor as he engages in any 
Christian service is not a vessel ready to be used by 
Christ. We need to take care that no shadows of 
ourselves, of our pride, our ambition, our self-seeking, 
fall upon our work for Christ. 

Sattuarg 31* 

BLESSINGS OF TRIBULATION. 

YU'HEN you have passed through a season of suffer- 
ing and stand beyond it, there ought to be a new 
light in your eye, a new glow in your face, a new gen- 
tleness in your touch, a new sweetness in your voice, a 
new hope in your heart and a new consecration in your 



Sanuarg 31* 

life. You ought not to stay in the shadows of the 
sorrow, but .to come again out of them, radiant with the 
light of victory and peace, into the place of service and 
duty. The comfort that God gives puts deep new joy 
into the heart and anoints the mourner or the sufferer 
with a new baptism of love and power. 



jft&ruars X. 

CONTENTMENT, NOT SATISFACTION. 

AX^E must distinguish between contentment and sat- 
isfaction. We are to strive to be content in any 
state; we are never to be satisfied in this world, 
whether our circumstances are prosperous or adverse. 
Satisfaction can come only when we awake in Christ's 
likeness in the world of eternal blessedness. We are 
not to seek contentment by restraining or crushing the 
infinite cravings and longings of our souls. Yet we 
are meant as Christians to live amid all circumstances 
in quiet calmness and unbroken peace, in sweet rest- 
fulness of soul, wholly independent of the strifes and 
storms about us, and undisturbed by them. Content 
in whatever state, yet never satisfied ; that is the ideal 
life for every Christian. 

27 



jFebruarg 2* 

SERVING CHRIST AT HOME. 
1WTANY people think that work for Christ must be 
something outside, something great or public. 
They imagine that to minister to Christ they must 
teach a Sunday-school class or join a missionary 
society or go out to visit sick people or go into hos- 
pitals or prisons on missions of mercy. These are all 
beautiful and important ministries, and Christ wants 
some of you to do just these things too ; but the very 
first place you are to serve him is in your own home. 
Let the blessed light of your life first be shed abroad 
in that most sacred of all spots. Brightening that lit- 
tle place, you will be the more ready to be a blessing 
outside. Those who are the best Christians at home 
are the best everywhere else. 

jFebruarjj 3. 

KEEPING OUR PROMISES. 

lUTANY people promise anything you ask of them, 
but make a small matter of keeping their promises. 
They enter into engagements with you to do this or that, 
to meet you or call on you at a certain time or to do 
some favor for you, and utterly fail to fulfill their en- 
gagements. This is a very serious matter, this lack of 
fidelity to promises and engagements. Surely we 

28 



jFefcruarg 3* 

ought to keep sedulous watch over ourselves in this 
regard. We ought to be faithful to the promises we 
make, cost what it may. It is a noble thing when we 
find one whose promises we are as sure of as of the ris- 
ing of the sun ; whose simplest word is as good as his 
oath ; who does just what he says he will do at the 
moment he says he will do it. That is the kind of 
faithfulness God wants. 

jjtbruarsi 4* 

LOVE AS WELL AS SERVICE. 

AX/E may carry too far our idea that all our service 
of Christ, our acts of love for him, must be also 
in some way acts of practical beneficence and help to 
our fellow-men. We may not call all deeds and gifts 
wasted which do not feed the hungry or clothe the 
naked. In secret we may pour our broken heart's 
love upon Christ, bathing his feet with penitential 
tears, even though we do nothing in these acts for any 
human life. In our worship we may adore him and 
love him, though we comfort no sad heart and help no 
weary one. Nothing is so grateful to the heart of 
Christ as love, and surely we ought sometimes just to 
love Christ, forgetting every other being in the ecstasy 
of our heart's adoring. 

29 



jjtbruarg 5* 

god's plan for our lives. 

POD does not merely make souls and send them into 
this world to take bodies and grow up amid crowds 
of other souls with bodies, to take their chances and 
make what they can of their destinies. He plans spe- 
cifically for each life. He deals with us as individuals. 
He knows us by name, and loves us each one with a 
love as distinct and personal as if each was the only 
child he had on this earth. He has a definite plan 
for each life. It is always a beautiful plan too, for 
he never designs marring and ruin for a life. He 
never made a human soul for the express purpose of 
being lost. God's design for each life is that it shall 
reach a holy character, do a good work in the world, 
fill a worthy place, however humble, and fill it well, 
so as to honor God and bless the world. 

jjt&ruarg 6* 

THE HABIT OP SYMPATHY. 

HTHE gentle ministries of love which you take time 
to perform as you hurry from task to task in your 
busy days will give you the sweetest joy as you remem- 
ber them in the after days. What these ministries 

30 



are to those who receive them you never can know 
till your own heart is sad and lonely and one comes to 
you in turn with the true comfort of love. Train 
yourself to the habit of sympathy. Be ready any hour 
to speak the full rich word of love which shall light- 
en the burden of the one you meet. Everywhere are 
hearts that need and hunger for what you have to give, 
and God has given love to you for the very purpose of 
blessing those whom he sends to you day by day. 

jFe&ruarg 7* 

USE YOUR ONE TALENT. 

TSE your one talent for God's glory, and he will 
give you more to use. Do the little duties faith- 
fully, and you will grow in skill and ability and be 
able for greater. No duties are small or unimportant. 
There are many who grow discouraged because they 
are kept all their life at little tasks. Men praise grand 
and heroic deeds, and little notice is taken of the com- 
mon heroisms of daily duty. But you remember what 
one said : that if God sent two angels to earth, one to 
rule an empire and the other to clean a street, they 
would each regard their employment as equally distin- 
guished. True faithfulness regards nothing as small 
or unimportant. 

31 



jftftruarg 8* 

THE COST OP BEING GOOD. 

AATE can never bless the world by merely having a 
good time in it. We must suffer, give and sac- 
rifice if we would do good to others. It costs even to 
be good. Some of us know what self-repression, what 
self-restraint, what self-crucifixion and what long, severe 
discipline lie back of calmness, peacefulness, sweetness 
of disposition, good temper, kindly feelings and habit- 
ual thoughtfulness. Most of us have lived long enough 
to know that these qualities do not come naturally. 
We have to learn to be good-tempered, thoughtful, 
gentle, even to be courteous, and the learning is always 
hard. Indeed, we attain nothing good or beautiful in 
spiritual life without cost. 

jFe&ruarg 9. 

"AS I HAVE LOVED YOU." 

"T OVE one another as I have loved you." How did 
Christ love his disciples ? How did he manifest 
his love to them ? Was it not, among other ways, in 
wondrous patience with them, with their faults, their 
ignorance, their unfaithfulness? Was it not in con- 
siderate kindness, in ever-watchful thoughtfulness, in 
compassionate gentleness ? Was it not in ministering 

32 



jFefrruarg 9. 

to them in all possible ways ? What is it, then, to love 
one another as he loves us ? Is it not to take his ex- 
ample for our pattern ? But how slowly we learn it ! 
How hard it is to be gentle, patient, kindly, thought- 
ful, even perfectly true and just, one to another ! Still, 
there the lesson stands and waits for us, and we must 
never falter in learning it. 

jjt&ruarg 10. 

SOUL-HUNGER. 
A RELIGION that is satisfied with any ordinary at- 
tainments — indeed, that is ever satisfied at all — is 
not a living religion. The Master's benediction is upon 
those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is 
the longing soul that grows. There are better things 
before you than you have yet attained. Strive to 
reach them. It is not easy to rise Christward, heaven- 
ward, to advance in the Christian life, to grow better. 
It is hard, costly, painful. Many people are discour- 
aged because they do not appear to themselves to be 
any better, to be any more like Christ, to-day than 
they were yesterday. But even true longing is growth. 
It is the soul's reaching godward. 

" The thing we long for, that we are 
For one transcendent moment." 
3 33 



JFebrttarg XI* 

GOD AND NATURE. 

^XTE talk about laws of nature, and we say they are 
fixed and unchanging. Yes ; but God is back 
of the laws of nature. They are merely his ways of 
working. They do not work and grind like a great 
heartless machine ; there is a heart of love, a Father's 
heart, at the centre of all this vast mechanism which 
we call nature. All things work together for good to 
every one who loves God. You are the centre of the 
universe in a sense that is wondrously true. All 
things revolve about you ; all things minister to your 
good. If only you keep your trust fixed upon God 
and are obedient and submissive, even nature's tre- 
mendous energies will never harm your true life. 

jfe&ruarg X2* 

THE SPLENDOR OF COMMON DUTY. 

|7 VERY common walk of life is glorious with God's 
presence, if we could but see the glory. We are 
always under commission from Christ. We have, 
sealed orders from him every morning which are 
opened as the day's events come. Every opportu- 
nity for duty or for heroism is a divine call. Be loyal 
to duty, no matter where you may hear its call nor to 

34 



jjt&ruarjr 12 ♦ 

what service it may bid you. Duty is duty, however 
humble it may be, and duty is always noble, because 
it is what God himself allots. The work which the 
day brings to us is always his will, and the sweetest 
thing in all this world to a loving, loyal heart always 
is God's will. The service of angels in heaven's bright- 
ness is no more radiant than the faithful duty-doing 
of the lowliest saint on earth. 

jfc&ruaru 13* 

THE LOSING THAT IS SAVING. 

HE way to make nothing of our life is to be very 



T 



careful of it, to hold it back from perilous duty, 
from costly service, to save it from the waste of self- 
denial and sacrifice. The way to make our life an 
eternal success is to do with it what Jesus did with his 
— present it a living sacrifice to God, to be used wholly 
for him. Men said he threw his life away, and so it 
certainly seemed up to the morning of his resurrection. 
But no one would say that now of Christ. His was 
the throwing away of life which led to its glorifying. 
In no other way can we make anything worthy and 
eternal of our life. Saving is losing. It is losing it 
in devotion to Christ and his service that saves a life 
for heavenly honor and glory. 

35 



jftbruarg 14* 

THE VALUE OF THE RESERVE 

T^HERE is a wide difference between worrying about 
a possible future of trial and being ready for it if it 
should come. The former we should never do ; the 
latter we should always seek to be. It is he who is 
always prepared for emergencies, for the hard pinches, 
the steep climbing, the sore struggle, that gets through 
life victoriously. In moral and spiritual things it is 
the same. It is the reserve that saves us in all final 
tests — the strength that lies back of what we need in 
ordinary experiences. Those who daily commune with 
God, breathing his life into their souls, become strong 
with that secret, hidden strength which preserves them 
from falling in the day of trial. They have a " ves- 
sel " from which to refill the lamp when its little cup 
of oil is exhausted. 

jFe&ruarg 15* 

FINDING YOUR MISSION. 

HTO find your mission you have but to be faithful 
wherever God puts you for the present. The 
humbler things he gives in the earlier years are for 
your training, that you may be ready at length for the 
larger and particular service for which you were born. 

36 



jftbruarg X5* 

Do these smaller, humbler things well, and they will 
prove steps in the stairs up to the loftier height where 
your " mission " waits. To spurn these plainer duties 
and tasks, and to neglect them, is to miss your mission 
itself in the end, for there is no way to get to it but by 
these ladder-rounds of commonplace things which you 
disdain. You must build your own ladder day by day 
in the common fidelities. 

jjtbruarg 16* 

sorrow's compensations. 

TDEYOND the river of sorrow there is a promised 
land. No grief for the present seems joyous, yet 
afterward it leads to blessing. There is a rich possible 
good beyond every pain and trial. There are green 
fields beyond sorrow's Jordans. God never means 
harm to our lives when he sends afflictions to us. 
Our disappointments are God's appointments, and 
bring rich compensation. Our losses are designed to 
become gains to us as God plans for us. There is 
nothing really evil in the experiences of a Christian, 
if only God be allowed to work out the issue. Our 
Father sends us nothing but good. No matter about 
the drapery ; be it sombre or gay, it enfolds a gift of 
love. 

37 



jjt&ruarg 17* 

A TIME TO BE DEAF. 

TN slander the listener is almost, if not quite, as bad 
as the speaker. The only true thing is to shut your 
ears the moment you begin to hear from any one an 
evil report of another. The person has no right to 
tell it to you, and you have no right to hear it. If 
you refuse to listen, he will not be able to go on with 
his narration. Ears are made to hear with, but on 
occasion it is well to be deaf. We all aim at courtesy, 
and courtesy requires that we be patient listeners, even 
to dull and prosy talkers ; but even courtesy may not 
require us to listen to evil reports about a neighbor. 
Ear-gate should be trained to shut instinctively when 
the breath of aspersion touches it, just as eye-gate shuts 
at slightest approach of harm. 

jFtfmtarg 18* 

PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 

17 VERY human life is a force in this world. On 
every side our influence pours perpetually. If our 
lives are true and good, this influence is a blessing to 
other lives. Let us never set agoing any influence 
which we shall ever want to have gathered up and 

38 



jft&ruarg 18* 

Duried with us. When we think of our personal influ- 
ence, unconscious, perpetual, pervading and immortal, 
can we but cry out : " Who is sufficient for these things ?" 
How can we command this outflow from our lives, 
that it shall always be blessed ? Let us be faithful in 
all duties, in all obligations and responsibilities, in all 
obediences, in act, word and disposition, all the days, 
in whatever makes influence. In no other way can 
we meet the responsibility of living. 

JFebruarg 19. 

THE HUMAN PART. 

'THE work of seeking, winning and gathering perish- 
ing souls Christ has committed to his disciples. 
The redemption is divine, but the mediation of it is 
human. So far as we know, no lost sinner is brought 
to repentance and faith save through one who already 
believes. It is the Holy Spirit who draws souls to 
Christ, yet the Spirit works through believers on un- 
believers. We see thus a hint of our responsibility 
for the saving of the lost souls that our soul touches. 
There are those who will never be saved unless we do 
our part to save them. Our responsibility is commen- 
surate with our opportunity. Christ wants daily to 

39 



jFeforuarg 19* 

pour his grace through us to other lives, and we are 
ready for this most sacred of all ministries only when 
we are content to be nothing that Christ may be all in 
all ; vessels emptied that he may fill them ; channels 
through which his grace may flow. 

jFe&ruarg 20* 

THE TRUE MINISTRY OF PAIN. 
HTHERE is a Christian art of enduring pain which 
we should seek to learn. The real problem is not 
just to endure the suffering which falls into our life, 
to bear it bravely, without wincing, to pass through it 
patiently, even rejoicingly. Pain has a higher mission 
to us than to teach us heroism. We should endure it 
in such a way as to get something of blessing out of it. 
It brings to us some message from God which we should 
not fail to hear. It lifts for us the veil that hides God's 
face, and we should get some new glimpses of his 
beauty every time we are called to suffer. Pain is 
furnace-fire, and we should come out of it always with 
the gold of our character gleaming a little more bright- 
ly. Every experience of suffering ought in some way 
to lift us nearer God, to make us more gentle and lov- 
ing, and to leave the image of Christ shining a little 
clearer in our lives. 

40 



jftfrruarg 21* 

FAULT-FINDING. 

TT is strange how oblivious we can be of our own 

faults and of the blemishes in our own character, 
and how clearly we can see the faults and blemishes 
of other people. Finding so much wrong in others is 
not a flattering indication of what our own hearts con- 
tain. We ought to be very quiet and modest in criti- 
cising others, for in most cases we are just telling the 
world what our own faults are. Before we turn our 
microscopes on others to search out the unbeautiful 
things in them, we had better look in our mirrors to 
see whether or not we are free ourselves from the 
blemishes we would reprove in our neighbor. There 
is a wise bit of Scripture which bids us get clear of 
the beams in our own eyes, that we may see well to 
pick the motes out of the eyes of others. 

jFe&ruargi 22. 

MAKING SWEET MEMORIES. 

\XTE are all making memories in our to-days for our 
to-morrows. The back-log in the old-fashioned 
fireplace sings as it burns, and one with poetic fancy 
says that the music is the bird-songs of past years — 
that when the tree was growing in the forest the birds 
sang in its branches, and the music sank into the tree 

41 



jFefrruarg 22. 

and was held there, until now in the winter fire it is 
set free. This is only a beautiful fancy, but there is 
an analogy in life which is actual. Along the days 
of childhood and youth the bird-notes of gladness 
sing about us. They sink away into the heart and 
hide there. In the busy days of toil and care which 
follow they ofttimes seem to be lost and forgotten. 
Then in still later days the fires of trial come and 
kindle about the life, and in the flames the long-im- 
prisoned music is set free and flows out. Many an 
old age is brightened and sweetened by the memories 
of early years. They are wise who in their happy 
youth-time fill their hearts with pure, pleasant things ; 
they are laying up blessings for old age. 

jfcftruari! 23. 

IN ALL THY WAYS. 

F\0 we make much of God in our lives? Is God 
really much to us in conscious personal experi- 
ence ? Do we not go on making plans and carrying 
them out without once consulting him ? We talk to 
him about our souls and about our spiritual affairs, 
but we do not speak to him about our daily work, our 
trials, our perplexities, our week-day, work-day life. 

42 



We are to shut God out of no part of our life. "We 
must have something besides human nature, even at 
its best, if we would be ready for all that lies before 
us. We must get our little lives so attached to God's 
life that we can draw from his fullness in every time 
of need. 

jjt&ruarg 24* 

THE BLESSING OP TEMPTATION. 

Yfc[T& sometimes wish there were no temptation, no 
sore trial in life, nothing to make it hard to be 
good, to be true, to be noble, to be pure. But did you 
ever think that these great qualities can never be got- 
ten easily, without struggle, without self-denial, with- 
out toil ? Every promised land in life lies beyond a 
deep, turbulent river, which must be crossed before the 
beautiful land can be entered. Not to be able to cross 
the stream is not to enter the blessed country. Every 
temptation is therefore a path which leads to some- 
thing noble and good. If we endure the temptation 
and are victorious, we shall find ourselves within the 
gates of a new paradise. " Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation : for when he hath been approved, 
he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord 
promised to them that love him." 

43 



JFdrcuarg 25* 

FIDELITY IN TRIFLES. 

HPHERE will be honors eternal for those who have 
filled important places of trust and responsibility 
in this world and have proved faithful in great things. 
There will be crowns of glory for the martyrs who 
along the ages have died rather than deny Christ. 
But there will be rewards just as brilliant and dia- 
dems just as splendid for those who, in lives of lowly 
service and self-denial and in patient endurance and 
humble devotion, have been faithful in the things that 
are least. God does not overlook the lowly, nor does 
he forget the little things. If only we are faithful in 
the place to which he assigns us and in the duties he 
gives us, we shall have our reward, whether the world 
praises or whether our lives and our deeds are un- 
known and unpraised among men. Faithful ! that is 
the approval which brings glory. 

jFebruarg 26+ 

POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY. 

TDOWER makes responsibility. You are not respon- 
sible merely for what you are trying to do, but for 
what God has given you power to do. Wake up those 
slumbering possibilities in your soul ; you are respon- 
sible for all these. Stir up the unused, inactive gifts 

44 



Jftftruarg 26. 

that are in you ; you are responsible for these. The 
things you can do or can learn to do are the things 
Christ is calling you to do, and the things he will re- 
quire at your hand when he comes again. It is time 
we were understanding life's meaning. God gives us 
seeds, but he will require more than seeds at our hand ; 
he will require all the harvest of beauty and blessing, 
that the best tillage can bring out of the seeds. 

jjt&ruarg 27* 

THE MINISTRY OF SYMPATHY. 
IM^O ministry in this world is more beautiful or more 
helpful than that of those who have become famil- 
iar with life's paths, and have learned life's secrets in 
the school of experience, and then go about inspiring, 
strengthening and guiding younger souls who come 
after them. Nothing in Christ is more precious than 
this knowledge of life's ways, gained by his own act- 
ual experience in human paths. He has not forgot- 
ten what life was to him. He remembers how he felt 
when he was hungry or weary or in struggle with the 
tempter or forsaken by his friends. And it is because 
he passed through all these experiences that now in 
heaven he can be touched with the feeling of our in- 
firmities and can give us sympathy, help and guid- 
ance. 

45 



jjt&ruarg 28* 

GROWING THROUGH HABITS. 

ANE whose daily life is careless is always weak. But 
one who habitually walks in the paths of upright- 
ness and obedience grows strong in character. Exer- 
cise develops all the powers of his being. Doing good 
continually adds to one's capacity for doing good. 
Victoriousness in trial or trouble puts ever-new 
strength into the heart. The habit of faith in the 
darkness prepares for stronger faith. Habits of 
obedience make one immovable in one's loyalty to 
duty. We can never over-estimate the importance of 
life's habits ; they lead our growth of character in 
whatever way they tend. 

jftftruarg 29. 

"THY will be done." 

n OD'S will for us leads on earth to the noblest, 
truest, most Christ-like character, and then beyond 
this world to glory and eternal life. For you, what- 
ever your experiences, however hard and painful life 
may seem to you, God's will is the very hand of divine 
love to lead you on toward all that is good and beauti- 
ful and blessed. Never doubt it, even in the darkest 

46 



jjt&ruarg 29. 

hour or when the pain is sorest or when the cross is 
heaviest. God's will holds you ever close to God, and 
leads you ever toward and into God's sweetest rest. 
It brings peace to the heart — a peace that never can 
come in any way of our own choosing — to be able 
always to say, "Thy will be done." 



JHarcij !♦ 

love's ministry. 

r OVE'S quality is measured by what it will do, 
what it will give, what it will suffer. God so 
loved the world that he gave — gave his only-begotten 
Son, gave all, withheld nothing. That is the measure 
of the divine love for us : it loves to the uttermost. 
If you are Christ's, every energy of your mind, every 
affection of your heart, every power of your soul, 
every fibre of your body, every particle of your in- 
fluence, every dollar of your money, is Christ's, and 
all of these are to be used to bless your fellow-men 
and to make the world better and happier. If we 
love, we will give, we will suffer, we will sacrifice. If 
we would be like God, we must live to minister, giving 
our life, without reserve, to service in Christ's name. 

47 



Jtarfj 2. 

BEFORE THE SUN GOES DOWN. 

FSTRANGEMENTS between friends should not be 
permitted to continue over night. It is a scriptural 
counsel that we should not let the sun go down upon 
our wrath. Why ? Because there may not be another 
day in which to get the wound healed and the estrange- 
ment removed. " But it was not my fault," you say. 
Noble souls, inspired by the love of Christ, must not 
ask whose fault it was that the estrangement began 
nor whose place it is first to seek restoration. If it was 
not your fault, you are the better one to begin the rec- 
onciliation. It is Christ-like for the one who is not to 
blame to take the first step toward the healing of the 
breach. That is the way He did and always does with 
us. Do not delay too long. What time is it ? Is the 
sun moving toward his setting? Hasten, and before 
the shadows of evening come on be reconciled with 
your friend. Let not the stars look down on two hearts 
sundered by anger or misunderstanding. 

J&arcfj 3. 

GREATNESS IN GOD'S SIGHT. 

TPHE greatest men are but fractions of men. No one 

is endowed with all gifts. Every one has his own 

particular excellence or ability. No two have precisely 

48 



JHarrfj 3. 

the same gifts, and no two are called to fill precisely 
the same place in life. The lowliest and the humblest 
in endowments is just as important in his place as the 
most brilliantly gifted. The great life in God's sight 
is not the conspicuous one, but the life that fills the 
place which it was made to fill and does the work 
which it was made to do. God asks not great things ; 
he asks only simple faithfulness, the quiet doing of 
what he allots. 

Jlarrfj 4* 

MINOR UNTRUTHFULNESSES. 

T^HEKE are other forms of untruthfulness besides the 
direct lie. There are those who would not speak 
an untrue word, who yet color their statements so as to 
make them really false in the impression they leave ; or 
they would not speak a lie, but they will act one. Their 
lives are full of small deceits, concealments, pretences, 
insincerities, dissimulations, dishonesties. You know 
how many of these there are in society. Oh, be true 
in your inmost soul — true in every word, act, look, 
tone and feeling. Never deceive. There are no white 
lies in God's sight ; it is a miserable fiction that thinks 
there are. 

4 49 



JHarcij 5* 

TO-DAY, NOT TO-MORROW. 

'THERE are duties that must be done at a particular 
moment or they cannot be done at all. It is to- 
day the sick neighbor needs your visit, your help ; to- 
morrow he may be well or others will have ministered 
to him or he may be dead. It is to-day that your 
friend needs your sympathy, your comfort ; it will not 
be of any use to him to-morrow. It is to-day that this 
tempted one needs your help in his struggle ; to- 
morrow he may be defeated, lying in the dust of shame. 
It is to-day you must tell the story of the love of 
Christ; to-morrow it may be too late. Learn well 
the meaning of Now in all life. To-morrow is a fatal 
word; thousands of lives and countless thousands of 
hopes have been wrecked on it. To-day is the word 
of divine blessing. 

Jlartfj 6* 

TRUSTING FOR TO-MORROW. 

C HOULD the uncertainty of all human affairs sad- 
den our lives? No; God does not want us to 
bring to-morrow's possible clouds to shadow our to- 
days. He does not want us to be unhappy while the 

50 



Jlardj 6* 

sun shines because by-and-by it will be dark. He 
wants us to live in to-day and enjoy its blessings 
and do its work well, though to-morrow may bring 
calamity. How can we ? Only by calm, quiet, trust- 
ful faith in God and obedience to him at every step. 
Then no troublous to-morrow can ever bring us 
harm. Those who do God's will each day God will 
hide under his wings when the storm breaks. 

Jtadj 7* 

THE BEAUTY WITHIN. 

TDODILY health is beautiful. Mental vigor is beau- 
tiful. But heart-purity is the glory of all loveli- 
ness. The heart makes the life. The inner fashions 
the outer. So above all things be pure-hearted. That 
you may be pure-hearted let Christ more and more 
into your life, that he may fill all your soul and that 
his Spirit may permeate all your being. That the 
beauty of the Lord may be upon you, that the win- 
ning charm of God's loveliness may shine in your 
features, you must first have the beauty of Christ 
within you. The transfiguration must come from 
within. Only a holy, beautiful heart can make a 
holy, beautiful character. 

51 



Jtacfj 8* 

ANSWERS THAT WAIT. 

T^HE day may come to us, as life's meaning deepens, 
when we shall cry to Christ and he will not seem 
to hear. Whenever this experience may come, let us 
remember that Christ's silence is not refusal to bless. 
There may be some hindrance in ourselves, and a work 
of preparation is needed in us before the blessing can 
come. Instead of doubting or blaming the Master, 
we should look within ourselves and ask what it is 
that keeps the answer waiting. When we are down 
lower in the dust of humiliation, when our weak faith 
has grown stronger, when our self-will is gorie and we 
are ready to take the blessing in God's way and at his 
time, the silence will be broken by love's most gracious 
answer. 

Jlarcij 9. 

CHARACTER-BUILDING. 

HPHAT picture of the silent temple-builders on Mount 
Moriah is the picture of all the good work of the 
world. Ever the builders are at work on these char- 
acters of ours, but they work silently. From a thou- 
sand sources come the little blocks that are laid upon 

52 



Jlarrf} 9. 

the walls. The lessons we get from others, the influ- 
ences which friends exert upon us, the truths which 
reading puts into our minds, the impressions which life 
leaves upon us, the inspirations from the divine Spirit, 
— in all these ways the silent work of building goes on. 
It never ceases. The builders never rest. By day 
and by night the character-temple is rising. Is it all 
beautiful ? Are the stones all clean and white ? 

JHarrfj 10* 

STRONGEST WITH THE WEAKEST. 

'\X7'E are not all alike temptable. There are some 
with sweet temper and equable disposition whom 
nothing disturbs. God seems to have sheltered them 
by their very nature from the power of evil. Then 
there are others whose natures seem to be open on all 
sides, exposed to every danger. To live truly costs 
them fierce struggles every day. These easily-tempted 
ones are they to whom Christ's sympathy and helpful- 
ness go out in most tender interest. He singles out the 
one from every circle that is most liable to fall, and 
makes special intercession for that one. Even the 
Johns, with their gentle loveliness, receive less of help 
from the Master than do the fiery Peters. 

53 



WEAKNESS OP LITTLE FAITH, 

TT is because of our lack of faith, or of our small faith, 
that there is so little outcome from our ceaseless 
rounds of doing. If we had the power of Christ rest- 
ing upon us as we might have it, with one-tenth of the 
activity there would be ten times the result. Only 
think of the possibilities of our lives, the plainest, 
commonest of them, if we had all of Christ that we 
might have! He is ready to do through us greater 
things than he himself did. We need faith to lay 
ourselves in Christ's hand as the chisel lays itself in 
the hand of the sculptor. Then every touch of ours 
will produce beauty in some life. Then all the power 
of Christ will work through us. 

JHarcij 12* 

THE SANCTITY OP CONSECRATED LIFE. 

HPHE soul that has had a vision of the Christ, the 
person in whom Christ is already formed the 
" hope of glory," and who is also himself destined to 
wear the divine image, must never drag his honor in 
the dust of sin, must never degrade his holy powers in 
any evil service. Every time we are tempted to com- 

54 



JHarrfj 12* 

mit some sin, if we would stop and think, " I am now 
a child of God; shall a child of God, destined to 
wear Christ's image, stoop to be untrue or dishonest or 
impure or to cherish wrath or bitterness ?" would we 
not turn away from the temptation? Could we sin 
against God with the consciousness of our high call- 
ing in our heart? 

Jlarrfj X3. 

THE LAW OF AMUSEMENTS. 

A MUSEMENTS are proper, both as to kind and 
degree, just so far as they make us better Chris- 
tians. "Whenever they become hindrances to us in 
our Christian living or in our progress in sanctifica- 
tion, they are harmful, however innocent they may be 
in themselves. How do your amusements act on your 
spiritual life ? What is their influence on you ? They 
may be very pleasing to you. They may afford great 
gratification. But what is their effect on you as a 
Christian ? In one word, Are they means of grace ? 
Or are they making you care less for Christ and hin- 
dering your advancement in spirituality ? We ought 
to be honest enough with ourselves to answer these ques- 
tions truthfully, and then act accordingly. 

55 



Jlarcij 14- 

THE ELOQUENCE OP LIVING. 

'TONGUES of angels without love to inspire their 
silvery strains are but as tinkling cymbals. Life 
itself is infinitely more potent than speech. Character 
far surpasses elocution as a force in this world. The 
talking standard is a false one in the estimating of the 
value and power of Christian workers. Do what you 
have gifts to do. Be sure of your heart-life. Make 
your personal character a sublime force in the world. 
Then when the accents of silvery speech shall have 
died away your influence will still remain a living 
power in the hearts of men and an unfading light in 
the world. 

Jlarrfj t5* 

WHAT TO DO WITH INJURIES. 

"IXTHAT must we do with the wrongs and injustices 
and injuries inflicted upon us by others if we are 
not to avenge them? How are these wrongs to be 
righted and these injuries to be healed? Do not fear 
the consequences of any wrong done to you. Simply 
roll the matter into God's hands and leave it there, 
and he will bring all out clear as the noonday. He 
will not suffer us to be permanently and really injured 
by any enmity. Our duty, then, is to bear meekly 

56 



Jlarcij Wu 

and patiently the suffering which others may cause us 
to endure ; to bathe with love the hand that smites ; 
to forgive those who injure us, and to commit all the 
injustices and inequities of our lives and all wrongs 
into the hand of the just and righteous God. The 
oyster's wounds become pearls ; and God can bring 
pearls of spiritual beauty out of the hurts made by 
human hands in our lives. 

Jtadj 16. 

LEARNING MEEKNESS. 

TD ELIGION is not good believing only ; it is getting 
the good things of good men and of God down out 
of the old pages of inspiration where we find them and 
into our own lives. Meekness as a beatitude is very 
beautiful. Meekness in Moses we admire greatly. 
But how much of it are we getting out of beatitude 
and biography into the experience of these common 
days ? In our daily intercourse with men do we hold 
our hearts quiet and still under all harshness, rudeness, 
criticism, injustice? There are countless little irrita- 
tions and provocations that make friction every day. 
How do we endure them ? Do they polish and refine 
our natures ? These are the lessons of meekness. 

57 



Jtecfj 17- 

SILENCE THAT IS GOLDEN. 

TT is easy for one to poison a person's mind concern- 
ing another. There is measureless ruin wrought in 
this world by the slanderer. Characters are blackened, 
friendships are destroyed, jealousies are aroused, homes 
are torn up, hearts are broken. Let us never take up 
an evil report and give it wing on breath of ours. 
Let us never whisper an evil thing of another. We 
know not where it may end, to what it may grow, 
what ruin it may work. Words once spoken can 
never be gotten back again. We had better learn to 
keep the door of our lips locked and say no evil ever 
of any one. This is a silence we shall never regret. 

JHarrfj 18* 

THE SHADOW OP GOD'S WINGS. 

TS there a grief in your heart which groweth into a sore 
pain ? Is there a shadow of a coming sorrow that 
you see drooping down over you ? Eemember it is the 
shadow of God's wing, and therefore it is a safe shadow. 
Creep closer under it, closer yet. Earth has nothing 
human so gentle as true mother-love ; but God's wing 
that Mds down over you then is gentler than even 

58 



JHartfj 18* 

mother-love, and you can never get out from be- 
neath it. It holds you close to the gentle heart of 
the divine Father. You need never be afraid while 
resting there. In all the universe there is no harm 
that can come nigh you. From your eternal shel- 
ter you can look out with confidence, as from a win- 
dow of heaven, on the fury of earth's storms, and be 
at peace. The wildest of them cannot touch you in 
your pavilion. 

Jtecij 19* 

THE BEAUTY OP RELIGION. 

^IXTHILE Christian life is firm and unflinching in its 
integrity and uprightness, it is yet beautiful in 
its amiability and gentleness. The immutable princi- 
ples of uprightness, like mountain-crags, are wreathed 
over with the tender vines and covered with the sweet 
flowers of grace and charity. True religion is never 
meant to dry up the life and make it cold, hard and 
dead. It is meant to bring out ever-new beauties, to 
clothe the soul in garments of loveliness. It insists on 
the development of every power of body, mind and 
soul to the farthest possibility. It presents the strong- 
est motives. It points to the finest examples. Its ideal 
includes not only " whatsoever things are true, whatso- 

59 



Hard) 19. 

ever things are just," but also " whatsoever things are 
lovely." 

JHarcf) 20. 

SELF-RENUNCIATION. 

T^HEY are highest in the ranks of men who serve, 
who live for others, whose lives are given out in 
loving, unselfish ministry ; and they rank highest of 
all who serve the most deeply and unselfishly. It is 
only in serving that we begin to be like the angels and 
like God himself. It is when the worker for Christ 
utterly forgets himself, sacrifices himself in the fire of 
his love for Christ, that his labor for souls yields the 
richest and best results. When we care only that 
Christ may be magnified, whether by honor or dis- 
honor, by life or death, in us, then will he honor us 
by using us to win souls for his kingdom. 

Jlarrfj 21* 

SAYING "YES" TO CHRIST. 

HPO believe on Christ as a disciple is to say " Yes " to 

him always, with the whole heart, with the whole 

being. It is giving up the sins that grieve him. It is 

60 



JHarcfj 21* 

cutting loose from whatever displeases him. It is re- 
nouncing every other master, and taking orders from 
him only. It is going with him, following him wher- 
ever he leads, without question, without condition, 
without reserve, not counting the cost. It is saying 
" Yes " to Christ whatever he may ask us to do or to 
give up or to sacrifice or to suffer. That was the way 
his first disciples followed him. That is the way his 
disciples must follow him now. Absolute obedience 
to him is the condition of following. 

Hard) 22* 

"unto the end." 

HPHE most wonderful thing in the universe is our 
Saviour's love for his own. Christ bears with all 
our infirmities. He never tires of our inconsistencies 
and unfaithfulnesses. He goes on for ever forgiving 
and forgetting. He follows us when we go astray. 
He does not forget us when we forget him. Through 
all our stumbling and sinning, through all our provo- 
cation and disobedience, through all our wayward- 
nesses and stubbornnesses, through all our doubting 
and unfaithfulness, he clings to us still, and never lets 
us go. Having loved his own, he loves unto the end. 

61 



Jtad) 23. 



TN the divine providence nothing comes a moment 
too soon or too late, but everything comes in its own 
true time. God's clock is never too slow. Every link 
of the chain of God's providences fits into its own 
place. We do not see the providence at the time. 
Not until afterward will you see that your disappoint- 
ments, hardships, trials, and the wrongs inflicted on 
you by others are .parts of God's good providence to- 
ward you, full of blessing. Not until afterward will 
you see it, but the " afterward " is sure if you firmly 
and faithfully follow Christ and cleave to him. The 
"afterward" of every disappointment or sorrow is 
blessing and good. We need only to learn to wait 
in patience. 

Jterfj 24 

VICTORY BY YIELDING. 

JACOB got the victory and the blessing not by 

wrestling, but by clinging. His limb was out 

of joint and he could struggle no longer, but he would 

not let go. Unable to wrestle, he wound his arms 

around the neck of his mysterious antagonist and 

62 



Jlarrf) 24- 

hung all his helpless weight upon him, until at last 
he conquered. We will not get victory in prayer un- 
til we too cease our struggling, give up our own will 
and throw our arms about our Father's neck in cling- 
ing faith. What can puny human strength take by 
force out of the hand of Omnipotence ? Can we wrest 
blessings by force from God ? It is never the violence 
of willfulness that prevails with God. It is the might 
of clinging faith that gets the blessings and the vic- 
tories. It is not when we press and urge our own will, 
but when humility and trust unite in saying, " Not my 
will, but thine." We are strong with God only in the 
degree that self is conquered and is dead. Not by 
wrestling, but by clinging, can we get the blessing. 

JHarcij 25. 

THE LESSON OF PEACE. 

"IXTHERE Christ places us we are to remain ; where 
he sends us we are to go. And in the heat of 
life's conflicts, set upon on every hand by a host of 
things which tend to distract our peace, we are to 
maintain an unruffled calm and all the tenderness and 
simplicity of the heart of a little child. That is the 
problem of life and of living which Christ sets for us, 

63 



JHarrfj 25. 

and which he will help us to solve if we accept him as 
our teacher. As the tender grass and even sweet flow- 
ers live and grow all through the winter under the 
deep snows, and come forth in the spring-time in 
beauty, so our hearts may remain loving, tender and 
joyous through life's sorest winter under the snows of 
trial and sorrow. 

JHartfj 26. 

CLIMBING UPWARD. 

C OME one asked an old minister, " What is repent- 
ance ?" " The first turn to the right," was his an- 
swer. If you want to grow into Christlikeness, rising 
at length into radiant purity and sainthood, you must 
begin with the first simple duty that comes to your 
hand. Kesist the first temptation. Do the first right 
thing that offers. Paint on your soul the first vision 
of divine loveliness you see. You cannot reach saint- 
hood at a bound. You must conquer your way up 
step by step. 

" Heaven is not reached by a single-bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise, 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
And we mount to its summit round by round." 
64 



Jftardj 27. 

ALWAYS OUR BEST. 
A LL Christ wants from any of us is what we have 
ability to do. He asks no impossibilities. He ac- 
cepts our homeliest, poorest gifts or services if they 
are indeed our best and if true love to him consecrates 
and sanctifies them. We need to care but for two 
things — that we do always our best, and that we do 
what we do through love for Christ. If we are faith- 
ful up to the measure of our ability and opportunity 
and if love sanctifies what we do, we are sure of our 
Lord's approval. But we should never offer less than 
the best that we can do ; to do so is to be disloyal to 
our Lord and disloyal to our own soul. 

fttarrfj 28. 

"thinketh no evil." 
T OVE thinketh no evil. It does not suspect un- 
kindness in kindly deeds. It does not imagine an 
enemy in every friend. It does not fear insincerity in 
sincere professions of esteem. It does not impugn 
men's motives nor discount their acts. On the other 
hand, it overlooks foibles and hides the multitude of 
faults that belong to every human being, even those 
who are the holiest and the best. It believes in the 
good that is in people, and tries to think of them always 

5 65 



Hard) 28. 

at their best, not at their worst. It looks, too, at the 
possibilities that are in men, what they may become 
through divine love and grace, and not merely at what 
they now are. It is wonderful how seeing through 
love's eyes changes the whole face of earthly life, 
transfiguring it. If the heart be filled with suspicion, 
distrust and doubt of men, the world grows very ugly. 
But love sees brightness, beauty and hope everywhere. 

Jtarfj 29. 

NEED A REVEALER OP LOVE. 

"IXTHATEVER makes us forget ourselves and think 
of others lifts us upward. This is one reason 
that God permits suffering. We would never know 
the best and richest of human love if there were no 
pain, no distress, no appeal of grief or of need. The 
best and holiest of mother-love would never be brought 
out if the child never suffered. The same is true of 
God's love. God would have loved his children un- 
fallen just as much as he loves them fallen, but the 
world would never have known so much of God's love 
had not man fallen. Our sore need called out all that 
was richest, holiest and divinest in our Father's heart. 
If no night came we should never know there are 
stars. Darkness is a revealer. 



JSarcfj 30. 

FAITHFULNESS. 

lA^HATEVER your duty is, you cannot be faithful 
to God unless you do your work as well as you 
can. To slur it is to do God's work badly. To neg- 
lect it is to rob God., The universe is not quite com- 
plete without your little work well done. " Be thou 
faithful " is the word that rings from heaven in every 
ear, in every smallest piece of work we are doing. 
" Faithful " as a measure of requirement is not a pil- 
low for indolence. It is not a letting down of obliga- 
tion to a low standard to make life easy. Faithfulness 
is a lofty standard. It means our very best and most 
always. Anything less is unfaithfulness. Thus the 
universe suffers, for the smallest duty not done or 
badly done leaves a lack or a blemish on the whole 
world's work. 

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING. 

POD blesses you that you may be a blessing to others. 
Then he blesses you also a second time in being a 
blessing to others. It is the talent that is used that 
multiplies. Receiving, unless one gives in turn, makes 
one full and proud and selfish. Give out the best of 

67 



Jttarrfj 31. 

your life in the Master's name for the good of others. 
Lend a hand to every one who needs. Be ready to 
serve at any cost those who require your service. Seek 
to be a blessing to every one who comes for but a 
moment under your influence. This is to be angel- 
like. It is to be God-like. It is to be Christ-like. 
We are in this world to be useful. God wants to pass 
his gifts and blessings through us to others. When 
we fail as his messengers, we fail of our mission. 

GOD HIMSELF HIS OWN BEST GIFT. 

T^NLAEGE your desires and your prayers. Do not 
ask merely for mercies and favors and common 
gifts. Do not ask God merely to give you bread and 
health and home and friends and prosperity ; or, ris- 
ing yet a step higher, do not content yourself with 
asking for grace to help in temptation, or for strength 
to fill up your weakness, or for wisdom to guide you in 
perplexity, or for holiness and purity and power. Ask 
for God himself, and then open your heart to receive 
him. If you have God, you have all other gifts and 
blessings in him. And it is himself that God is will- 
ing to give for the asking, not merely the favors and 
benefits that his hand dispenses. Ask most largely. 



A BEAUTIFUL LIFE. 

A LIFE need not be great to be beautiful. There 
may be as much beauty in a tiny flower as in a 
majestic tree, in a little gem as in a great mountain, in 
the smallest creature as in a mammoth. A life may 
be very lovely and yet be insignificant in the world's 
eyes. A beautiful life is one that fulfills its mission in 
this world, that is what God made it to be, and does 
what God made it to do. Those with only common- 
place gifts are in danger of thinking that they cannot 
live a beautiful life, cannot be a blessing in this world. 
But the smallest life that fills its place well is far love- 
lier in God's sight than the largest and most splendidly 
gifted that yet fails of its divine mission. 

" Far better in its place the lowliest bird 

Should sing aright to Him the lowliest song, 
Than that a seraph strayed should take the word 
And sing his glory wrong." 

FOLLOWING OUR WHITE BANNERS. 



W 



E talk about consecration. What is consecration ? 
It is nothing less than doing the will of Christ, 



not our own, always, whatever the cost, the sacrifice or 
the danger. There is too much mere sentiment in our 
religion. We say we believe in Christ ; if we do, we 
must follow him wherever he leads, though not know- 
ing whither. We say we love Christ, and quickly 
from his lips comes the testing word : " If ye love me, 
keep my commandments." To be a Christian is to be 
devoted, utterly, resistlessly, irrevocably, to Christ. 
Joan of Arc said the secret of her victoriousness was 
that she bade her white standard go forth boldly ; then 
she followed it herself. Good intentions and vows and 
pledges of consecration are well enough as white ban- 
ners, but when we have sent them forth we must be 
sure to follow them ourselves. 

&jml 4* 

"as thy days." 

'THEKE is in the Bible no promise of grace in ad- 
vance of the need. God does not say he will put 
strength into our arm for the battle wfiile we are in 
quiet peace and the battle is yet far off. When the 
conflict is at hand the strength will be given. He 
does not open the gates for us nor roll away the stones 
until we have come up to them. He did not divide 

70 



the Jordan's waters while the people were yet in their 
camps, nor even as they began to march toward the 
river. The wild stream continued to flow as the host 
moved down the banks, even until the feet of the 
priests had been dipped in the w T ater. This is the 
constant law of divine help. It is not given in ad- 
vance. As we come up to the need the supply is ready, 
but not before. Yet many Christians worry because 
they cannot see the way opened and the needs supplied 
far in advance of their steps. Shall we not let God 
provide and have faith in him ? 

" Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene ; one step enough for me." 



TRUE WOMANHOOD. 

T^HAT is not Christ's religion which is moved to 
ecstasies of love and compassion for the Zulus and 
Chinese across seas, and is selfish, irritable, greedy, im- 
patient and disobliging at home. The true woman is 
the very soul of self-forgetfulness in her own home- 
circle. Then wherever she goes she is the same. She 
carries the sweet, patient spirit of Christ everywhere. 

71 



Her hands are gentle as an angel's, and are ever scat- 
tering blessings. Her words are thrilled with a strange 
power of sympathy and tenderness, and carry comfort 
into the sad heart, courage into the fainting heart, life 
into the sluggish heart. A selfish woman is a contra- 
diction. Wherever selfishness does appear in a woman 
it is a blur that disfigures the divine beauty. 



TURNING VISIONS INTO LIFE. 

ry OD gives us visions of spiritual beauty that we may 
turn them into realities in common life. All our 
heavenward aspirations we should bring down and work 
into acts. All our longings and desires we should 
make true in experiences. Every day's Bible text 
taken into the heart should shine forth to-morrow in 
some new touch of spiritual beauty. As the look of 
the face is caught in the camera and held there, so 
every time Christ looks in upon our souls, even for an 
instant, some impression of his features should become 
fixed there and remain as part of our own spiritual 
beauty. So in all our life the words of Christ we 
hear, the lessons we are taught and the holy influences 

72 



&prtl 6* 

that touch our souls should enter into our very being 
and reappear in disposition, character, deeds. 

OTHER PEOPLE'S FAULTS. 
MO doubt it is easier to discover other people's faults 
than our own. Many of us are troubled more 
about the way our neighbors live than we are with our 
own shortcomings. We manifest a greater feeling of 
responsibility for the acts and neglects of others than 
for our own. Now, the truth is every man must bear 
his own burden. We shall not be called to answer at 
God's bar for the idle words, the sinful acts and the 
neglects of duty of our neighbor. But there is one 
person for whose every act, word, disposition and feel- 
ing we shall have to give an account, and that is our- 
self. We had better train ourselves, therefore, to keep 
close, minute, incessant and conscientious watch over 
our own life. We had better give less attention to our 
neighbor's mistakes, foibles and failures, and more to 
our own. Most of us would find little time for look- 
ing after other people's faults if we gave strict atten- 
tion to our own. Besides, seeing and knowing our 
own defects would make us more charitable to those 
of others. 

73 



THE FATHERHOOD OP GOD. 

UOW it would brighten and bless our lives if we 
were to carry always in our hearts the conception 
of God as our Father ! When we can look up into 
God's face and say out of warm and responding hearts, 
" Our Father," all the world and all life take on new 
aspects for our eyes. Duty is no longer hard and a 
drudgery, but becomes a joy. Keeping the command- 
ments is hard if we think of God merely as a king ; 
but if we look up to him as our Father all is changed, 
and our love for him and our desire to please him make 
obedience a gladness. We can say then, "I delight 
to do thy will, O my God." 

3lprtl 9. 

IN THE DISCOURAGED DAYS. 

IXTE all have our discouraged days, when things do 
not go well. The young people fail in their les- 
sons at school, although they have studied hard and 
really have done their best. The mothers are tried in 
their household work. The children are hard to con- 
trol. It has seemed impossible to keep good temper, 
to maintain that sweetness and that lovingness which 

74 



Iprtl 9. 

are so essential to a happy day. Try as they will to 
be gentle, kindly, patient, their minds are ruffled. 
They come to the close of the long, unhappy hours 
disturbed, defeated, discouraged. They have done 
their best, but they feel that they have really failed. 
They fall upon their knees with only tears for a 
prayer. But if they will lift up their eyes, they 
will see on the shore of the troubled sea of their lit- 
tle day's life the form of One whose presence will give 
them strength and confidence and who will help them 
to victoriousness. Before his sweet smile the shadows 
flee away; at his word new strength is given, and 
after that, work is easy and all goes well again. 

^pril 10. 

BLESSING IN MISTAKES. 

QUE, very mistakes and our sins, if we repent of 
them, will be used of God to help in the growth 
and upbuilding of our character. Our very falls, 
through the grace and tender love of Christ, become 
new births to our souls. 

" Of our vices we can frame 

A ladder, if we will but tread 
Beneath our feet each deed of shame." 

75 



In the hot fires of penitence we leave the dross and 
come again as pure gold. But we must remember that 
it is only Christ who can make our sins yield blessing. 
If we are Christ's true followers, even our defeats shall 
become blessings to us, stepping-stones on which we 
may climb higher. This is one of the marvels of 
divine grace, that it can make all things work to- 
gether for good. 

^pril XI. 

SPEAK OUT THE LOVING WORDS. 

UOW much better would it be if we were more gen- 
erous and lavish of our good words when our 
friends can be cheered and blessed by them ! Some- 
times we get the lesson of keeping silence over-learnt, 
and let hearts starve for lack of kindly words which 
lie meanwhile on our tongues ready to be spoken. It 
is not the want of love for which we are to be blamed, 
but the penuriousness that locks up the love and will 
not give it out in word and act to bless hungry lives. 
Is any other miserliness so mean? We let hearts 
starve close beside us when we have the bread to feed 
them, and then, when they lie in the dust of defeat or 
death, we come with our love to speak eloquent fu- 
neral eulogies. Would it not be far better to give out 
the kindliness when it will do good ? 

76 



&prtt XI. 

" Why do we wait, and coldly stint our praises, 
And leave our reverent homage unexpressed, 
Till brave hearts lie beneath a roof of daisies, 

Then heap with flowers each hallowed place of rest? 

" For every year the veteran ranks are broken, 
And every year new graves await our flowers. 
Ah ! why not give to living hearts some token 

Of half the love and pride that throb through ours ? 

" Bring blooms to crown the dead. But, in your giving, 
Forget not hearts that still can strive and ache ! 
Oh ! give your richest garlands to the living, 
Who offered all, in youth, for honor's sake !" 

CHRISTIAN WORK. 
ID KING every grace and gift of your life into Christ's 
service. Not only use well the gifts you have now 
at work, but develop what you have into greater skill 
and power of servicee. Strive ever to excel. Grow 
by working. Don't stand with idle hands a moment, 
because for each moment you must give account. Do 
not allow your spiritual powers to rest in dusty niches 
merely for adornment : take them all down and put 
life into them, that they may be useful. Do not play 
at Christian work. The King's business requireth 
haste. 

77 



CHARACTER ALONE ABIDES. 

AATE must strive to realize every dream of goodness 
and Christ-likeness that our hearts dream. Re- 
member it is character that is the only test, and the 
only true fruit, of living. It is not knowledge, for 
knowledge will fail. It is not money, for money can- 
not be carried away from earth. It is not fame, for 
fame's laurels fade at the grave's edge and its voice 
gives no cheer in the valley of shadows. It is not cul- 
ture or education or refinement. It is life — not what 
we have or what we know, but what we are — that we 
can carry with us into the eternal world. 

april 14* 

THE HOME FRIENDSHIPS. 

FRIENDSHIPS in the family require most gentle 
care and cultivation. We must win each other's 
love within home-doors just as we win the love of those 
outside — by the sweet ministries and graces of affection. 
We must prove ourselves worthy of being loved by 
those who are nearest ; they will not truly love us un- 
less we do, merely because we are of the same house- 
hold. We must show ourselves unselfish, thoughtful, 

78 



gentle, helpful. Home friendships must be formed as 
all friendships are formed — by the patient knitting of 
soul to soul and the slow growing of life into life. 
Then we must retain home-friends after winning just 
as we retain other friends — by a thousand little win- 
ning expressions in all our intercourse. We cannot 
depend upon relationship to keep us loved and loving. 
We must live for each other. We must give as well 
as receive. We must be watchful of our acts and 
words. 

THE HEART'S DAILY BREAD. 

^IXTE all need sympathy, human kindness, cheer, fel- 
lowship, the thousand little things of human love, 
as we go along the dusty road of life. These small 
coins of affection are the brighteners of every life that 
is blessed by a rich friendship. It is this unceasing 
ministry that your heart hungers for as its daily bread 
— not great gifts and large favors, but a gentle affec- 
tion ateness in your friend which shall bring cheer, 
satisfying, inspiration, comfort, uplifting, hope and 
strength to your soul every time you look into his 
face. 

79 



&pril 16* 

"in his name." 

TF we have the true spirit of service we will look upon 
every one we meet, even casually, as one to whom 
we owe some debt of love, one sent to us to receive 
some benediction, some cheer, some comfort, some 
strength, some inspiration, some touch of beauty at 
our hand. We may never do one great or conspicu- 
ous thing of which men will talk or which will be re- 
ported in the newspapers ; but every word w T e speak, 
every smallest act, every influence we send out, even 
unconsciously, " in His name," merely our shadow fall- 
ing on human need and pain and sorrow as we pass by, 
will prove sweet and blessed ministry of love, and will 
impart strength and help. The name of Christ conse- 
crates every smallest deed or influence, pouring it full 
of love. 

&pril 17* 

"I SAY WHAT I THINK." 

TTHEKE is a class of people who boast of their hon- 
esty and frankness because they "just say what 
they think," flinging out the words right and left as 
they come, no matter where they strike or whom they 
wound. Call it not honesty, this boasted frankness ; — 
call it rather miserable impertinence, reckless cruelty. 

80 



We have no right to say what we think unless we think 
lovingly and sweetly. We certainly have no right to 
unlade our jealousies, envies, bad humors and miser- 
able spites upon our neighbor's heart. If we must be 
ugly-tempered, we should at least keep the ugliness 
locked up in our own breast, and not let it out to mar 
other people's happiness. Or, if we must speak out 
the wretched feelings, let us go into our own room and 
lock the door and close the windows, that no ears but 
our own shall hear the hateful words. 

&prtl 18* 

THE PEACEMAKER'S BEATITUDE. 

TT is very easy, if you are talking to one who has a 
little distrust of another or a little bitterness against 
another, to say a word which will increase the distrust 
or add to the bitterness. We like to approve and jus- 
tify the one with whom we are speaking, and in doing 
so we are apt to confirm him in his bitterness or sense 
of wrong. Let us be on our guard that we do not un- 
intentionally widen little rifts into great breaches. Let 
us seek ever to be peacemakers. There is no other 
beatitude whose blessing is more radiant than that of 
the peacemakers — " they shall be called sons of God." 

6 81 



8prtl 19* 

THE BLESSING OF STRUGGLE. 

T^HE daily temptations which make every true life 
such a painful conflict from beginning to end bring 
us constant opportunities for growth of character. Not 
to struggle is not to grow strong. The soldier's art can 
be learned and the soldier's honors can be won only on 
the field of battle. If you would grow into the beauty 
of the Master, you must accept the conflicts and fight 
the battles. You can have life easy if you will by de- 
clining every struggle, but you will then get little out 
of life that is truly noble and worthy. The best things 
all lie beyond some battle-plain : you must fight your 
way across the field to get them. Heaven is only for 
those who overcome. None get the crown without the 
conflict save those who are called home in infancy and 
early childhood. 

" Sure I must fight if I would reign." 

Sprtl 20. 

MINISTEY OF " SHUT-INS." 



A 



FAITH that fails not nor murmurs in hours of 
suffering is like a heavenly lamp burning in the 

82 



Spril 20. 

home. It makes the chamber of pain a little sanctu- 
ary, a holy of holies, which none can enter but with 
quiet reverence. Do you think such suffering, so sus- 
tained, so radiant, performs no ministry of blessing for 
those who witness it ? We must not think that when 
God lays us aside from active service, shuts us in and 
calls us to suffer, he is stopping our usefulness for the 
time. Besides the enriching of our own lives for new 
ministries when we come again from the shadows, our 
suffering may become meanwhile a school for other 
lives, our faith and peace unspoken sermons on the 
power of God's love and grace. 



april 21* 

CONSCIENCE IN LITTLE THINGS- 

CCRUPULOUS people are often laughed at for their 
scruples. " Why be so particular?" gay and giddy 
ones ask. " Why be so conscientious about mere tri- 
fles ? Why be so exacting and punctilious in the doing 
of small duties ?" The answer is, that in the matter 
of right and wrong nothing is little ; certainly nothing 
is insignificant. Duty is duty, whether it be the small- 
est or the greatest matter. He is on the highway to 

83 



nobleness of character who has learned to be scrupu- 
lous concerning the smallest things. He that is care- 
ful in little things rises every day a step higher. He 
who is faithful in little things is then entrusted with 
larger responsibilities. It is the units in life that are 
most important. Look after the little units and the 
greater aggregates will be right. Make the minutes 
beautiful and the hours and days will be radiant. 



&prtl 22. 

GOODNESS IN THE SHADOWS. 

C HALL we trust our Father only when he is giving 
us pleasant things, and shall we not trust him also 
when he brings the shadow over our hearts ? Do you 
think God is good only when he makes all things such 
as please you? Is he not just as good when he gives 
you pain or losses ? It is the will of God that our 
home-sorrow shall make our home-life sweeter, purer, 
kindlier, Christlier. If we believe in God and take 
the pain from his hand with the same confidence as the 
pleasure, then the shadows will be as rich blessings to 
us as the lights and the sorrows will be steps upward 
on which our feet may climb toward God. 

84 



&}jrit 23. 

CHRISTIAN HISTORY. 

PHKISTIAN history is one of the best evidences of 
J the deity of Christ. No mere man could touch 
the world's life as Jesus Christ has touched it. It is 
nothing less than the energy of God working in men's 
hearts that has produced the marvelous results which 
we see wherever the gospel has gone. Men's bodies may 
not now be instantaneously healed by a divine touch, 
but men's moral lives are transformed by the same divine 
touch as in the old miracles of gospel days. Nations 
are lifted up into purity, justice, truth, freedom and 
righteousness. Are not these great moral and spirit- 
ual miracles as wonderful attestations of the divine 
mission of Christ as the physical miracles that marked 
the days of the incarnation ? 

COST OF BEING A BLESSING. 

TXTE must live deeply ourselves if we would be able 
to bless others. We must resist sin, even unto 
blood, if we would teach others how to be victorious 
in temptation. We must bear trials and endure sor- 
rows with patience, with submission and with faith, so 

85 



as to be victorious, if we would become comforters and 
helpers of others in their trials. You must learn be- 
fore you can teach, and the learning costs. At no 
small price can we become true helpers of others in 
this world. That which has cost us nothing in the get- 
ting will not be any great blessing to any other person 
in the giving. It is only when we lose our life, sacri- 
fice it to God, that we become deeply and truly 
useful. 

MAKING OTHERS HAPPY. 

THHE world needs nothing more than it needs happi- 
ness-makers. There is a great deal of sadness 
everywhere. The Bible is a book meant to make peo- 
ple happy. Joy-bells ring all through it. The mis- 
sion of the gospel is to make happiness. The angel's 
announcement of good tidings of great joy is going 
forth yet on every breeze. The story of the love of 
Christ is changing darkness to light, despair to hope, 
tears to laughter, sorrow to rejoicing, in all lands. It 
is the mission of every Christian to be a happiness- 
maker. Each one of us has power too to add some- 
thing at least to the world's gladness. We can do this 

86 



in a thousand ways — by being joyful Christians our- 
selves, making our lives a sweet song ; by telling others 
the joyful things of the word of God ; by doing kind- 
nesses to all we meet ; by comforting sorrow, lifting 
burdens away, cheering sadness and weariness and 
scattering benedictions wherever we go. 

&prtl 26. 

OUR HEART CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 

T) ELIGION is not an art nor a science ; it is a life. 
It is not the mere learning and following of a set of 
rules. It is the growth of Christ-likeness in the heart, 
spreading thence into the whole of the being. It is 
the setting up of the kingdom of heaven within us. 
This kingdom in one's heart is the rule and authority 
of Christ, owned and recognized there at the fount and 
spring of the life. It is the rule of love — " the love 
of Christ constraineth me." St. Paul goes still fur- 
ther, however, and speaks of it as a new incarnation. 
" Christ liveth in me," he says. A Christian life is, 
therefore, really the personal reign of Christ in the 
heart of every one who accepts him. The conquest 
is slow ; that is, the heavenly King finds his kingdom 
under alien sway, and to get full possession and to 

87 



&jjril 26. 

reign supreme and alone he must subdue the whole of 
the old nature. It is this work of conquest and sub- 
jugation that goes on in this world, and it is not com- 
plete until the believer passes into heaven. All earth- 
ly Christian life is, therefore, a learning to be a Chris- 
tian. We should bend all the energies of our being 
toward the bringing of heart, mind and will into com- 
plete subjection to our King. 

&jml 27. 

UPLIFTING POWER. 

IJAS Christ's friendship been to you as close, per- 
sonal, tender, constant as the human friendships 
that have been dearest ? The close friends of Christ 
have found no other influence so strong as his precious 
friendship in forming and transforming their lives. 
Continually before them, in all its purity and spotless- 
ness, in all its strength and heroism, in all its gentle- 
ness and beauty, that fair life has shone, a pattern in 
the mount let down from heaven for mortals to fashion 
their lives upon, brought down close to them and win- 
ning them by its loveliness. No one who has had Christ 
for friend in any true, real sense has failed to be blessed 
by him in the way of growth into nobler, richer life. 



^prtl 28. 

IMMORTAL WORK. 

1VTOTHING done in matter is immortal, for matter is 
perishable. The noblest monument of earthly 
builder will crumble ; but he who works on the un- 
seen, the spiritual, leaves impressions that shall endure 
for ever. The touch of beauty you put upon a life 
yesterday by the earnest words you spoke, by the new 
impulse you started in the heart of your friend, by the 
vision of heavenly purity you gave in your own life to 
one who was with you, will be bright when suns and 
stars shall have burned out to blackness. What we 
do on immortal lives is immortal. He is wise, there- 
fore, who chooses to do his life's work on materials that 
shall never perish. Thousands of years hence he will 
find the things he has done enduring still in immortal 
beauty. 

&pril 29. 

WORLDLY MOTIVE IN CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

'THERE is a great deal of worldly policy and pru- 
dence in the Christian Church. There are those 
who shrink from duties .through timidity or fear of the 
consequences. There are those who are restrained from 
taking the right side of important questions or boldly 
declaring their beliefs through motives of practical 



april 29- 

expediency. Too many professing Christians lack 
courage to speak to others about their spiritual inter- 
ests, fearing rebuff. The money question, it must be 
confessed, weighs sometimes in the balance in the shap- 
ing of the course of Christian men, the decision turn- 
ing on the answer to the question, " What will be the 
effect of this or that course on my business or on my 
social standing ?" We all know well that such world- 
ly policy ought to have no place among the motives 
that sway the minds of Christian people. The only 
desire should be to know what is right, what is duty, 
what is the will of God. To be swayed by any other 
influence is to be unfaithful to our Lord. 



M 



^pril 30. 

NEED OP RESERVE. 

ANY a great battle turns at last on the reserve. 



The struggle is perfectly balanced and victory is 
uncertain. Then one side or the other brings up its 
reserve, and instantly the question is settled. Life's 
battles and crises are determined in like manner, oft- 
times, by the reserve or the absence of reserve. No 
life is a dead level of experience from cradle to grave. 
The days are not all bright. The course is not all 
smooth. The experiences are not all easy. We must 

90 



april 30. 

all be assailed by temptations and by spiritual foes, 
when victory can be gained only if we have reserves 
of resistance to call into action. We must all stand 
before tasks and duties which will altogether baffle our 
ability if we have no more strength to draw on than 
we have been using in the common duties of the com- 
mon days. Blessed are they who have learned to draw 
on the infinite resources of divine strength ; with the 
fullness of God as reserve they can never fail. 

THE LAW OF MINISTRY. 

rtOD sets before us work, conflict, self-denial, cross- 
bearing. The central law of Christian life is min- 
istry, serving. You quote, "Man's chief end is to 
glorify God and to enjoy him for ever." Yes, but 
there is no way of glorifying God save by living to 
bless the world in Christ's name, to bless men by serv- 
ing them, loving them, helping them, doing them good. 
We are debtor, therefore, to every man we meet. We 
owe him love ; we owe him service. We are not to set 
ourselves up on little thrones and demand homage and 
service from others ; rather we are to do the serving. 
Christ came " not to be ministered unto, but to min- 
ister," and we should be as our Lord. 

91 



. 2+ 

UNSPOKEN PRAYERS. 

UVERY thought that flies through your brain is 
heard in heaven. God hears wishes, heart-long- 
ings, aspirations, soul-hungerings and thirstings. Do 
not grieve, then, if you cannot find words in which to 
tell God what you want, if you cannot put into well- 
defined thoughts the hopes and hungers of your heart. 
When words and even thoughts fail, pray in silent 
yearnings, in unutterable longings, and God will un- 
derstand just as well as if you spoke in common 
language. Much of our best praying is done when we 
sit at God's feet and do not speak at all, but only let 
our hearts talk. 

" Rather, as friends sit sometimes, hand in hand, 
Nor mar with words the sweet speech of their eyes, 
So in soft silence let us oftener bow, 
Nor try with words to make God understand. 
Longing is prayer ; upon its wings we rise 
To where the breath of heaven beats upon our brow." 

JHag 3. 

CHRISTIAN LOVE. 

'THE spirit of Christian love, if allowed to work 
deeply and thoroughly in all hearts and lives, 

92 



3. 

will prevent variance and alienation among Christians. 
It will lead us to forget ourselves and think of others, 
not pushing our own interests unduly nor demanding 
the first place, but in honor preferring one another. 
It will make us willing to serve, to minister, even to 
stoop down to unloose a brother's shoes. It will make 
us thoughtful, too, in all our acts, in our manners, in 
our words. It will make us gentle, kindly, patient, 
teaching us to be to all what Christ would be if he 
were in our place. 

Jlag 4- 

THE LIFE THAT WINS. 

YH E can win others to Christ only by being Christ 
to them, by showing them Christ in ourselves, by 
living so that they may be attracted to Christ, and 
may learn to admire and to love him by what they 
see of him in us. One of the most effective ways of 
winning souls is through beautiful, gentle, Christ-like 
living. Eloquence of persuasion in a preacher is pow- 
erful with sinners only in so far as the preacher's life 
is consistent. Preaching without love in the life is 
only empty clatter. But where deep, true love, the 
love of Christ, is, the plainest, humblest words become 
eloquent and mighty. 

93 



5* 

RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 

XJEAVEN is the Father's house. A father's house 
is a home ; and can you think for one moment of 
a home in which the members of the household do not 
know each other ? The sweetest, best, happiest and 
most perfect earthly home is but a dim picture of the 
love and gladness of the home in heaven. Heaven is 
like a holy home, only infinitely sweeter, truer and 
better. Home has been called " heaven's fallen 
sister." If in the imperfect homes of this world we 
find so much gladness in the ties that bind heart to 
heart and knit life to life, may we not be confident 
that in the perfect home of our heavenly Father all 
this gladness will be infinitely deepened and enriched ? 
Love will not be different in heaven ; it will be won- 
drously purified and exalted, but earthly love will live 
on through death into eternity. 

OBEDIENCE IN HEAVEN. 

QBEDIENCE makes heaven. All the life of heaven 

is simply perfect obedience. A little of heaven 

comes into our life on earth when we learn to obey 

94 



the will of God. Obedience is the mark of royalty. 
Wherever God finds a soul that is ready to yield al- 
ways to his will, to do his commandments without ques- 
tion, to submit to his providences without murmuring, 
there is a life that he is ready to crown. We get to 
be like Christ just as we learn to obey and do God's 
will. Heaven comes down into our heart just as we 
yield our lives to God. 

iffllag 7* 

WHY SO CHARY OF KINDNESS? 

IX^E let our friends go through life without many 
marks of appreciation. We are chary of com- 
pliments. We hide our tender interest and our kind- 
ly feelings. We are afraid to give each other the word 
of praise or of encouragement lest we should seem to 
flatter, lest we should turn each other's head. Even 
in many of our homes there is a strange dearth of 
good, whole-hearted, cheering words. Let us not be 
afraid to say appreciative and complimentary words 
when they are deserved and are sincere. Let us lose 
no opportunity to show kindnesses, to manifest sympa- 
thy, to give encouragement. Silence in the presence 
of needs that words would fill is sinful. 

95 



JHag 8* 

ROOM IN A HUMBLE SPHERE. 

XftTTiEN you are tempted to chafe and repine at the 
narrowness of your circumstances and the limi- 
tations of your sphere, remember that Jesus, with all 
his rich life and all his great powers, for thirty years 
found room in a humble peasant home for worthy liv- 
ing and for service not unfitted to his exalted character. 
If you can do nothing but live a true Christian life — 
patient, gentle, kindly, pure — in your home, in society, 
at your daily duty, you will perform in the end a ser- 
vice of great value and leave many blessings in the 
world. Such a life is a little gospel, telling in ser- 
mons without words the wonderful story of the cross 
of Christ. 

love's supreme moments. 

J* OVE in its supreme moments does not stop at a lit- 
tle. It does not weigh and measure and calculate 
and restrain its impulses and check its floods. They 
know nothing of love who think strange of Mary's 
costly deed, who try to explain why she acted so prod- 
igally, so lavishly, so wastefully, when she put upon 
her Lord the highest honor she could bestow upon him. 
If our love for Christ were only stronger, deeper, rich- 

96 



er, we would not need to have Mary's deed explained. 
We would not calculate so closely how much we can 
afford to give or do. 

Jftag 10* 

THE PERIL OP FAILURE. 

TWTYKIADS of lives with magnificent possibilities 
have been utter failures because men and women 
have not gone promptly to duty at the divine call. 
They were intended to fill certain places. God made 
them for these places and qualified them for them; 
but when they were summoned to their work they 
excused themselves on one plea or another and buried 
their talents in the earth. Let us train ourselves to 
obey every call of God, lest in our hesitancy, distrust 
or disobedience we fail of the mission for which we 
were made, and meet the doom of the useless in God's 
universe. 

Jftag n. 

IP WE KNEW. 

AATE should learn to look at the faults of others only 
through love's eyes, with charity, patience and 

7 97 



It. 

compassion. We do not know the secret history of 
the lives of others about us. We do not know what 
piercing sorrows have produced the scars which we see 
in people's souls. We do not know the pains and trials 
which make life hard to many with whom we are 
tempted to be impatient. If we knew all the secret 
burdens and the heart-wounds which many carry hid- 
den beneath their smiling faces, we would be patient 
and gentle with all men. 

12. 

THE SECRET OP PEACE. 

DERFECT loyalty to Christ brings perfect peace 
into the heart. The secret of Christ's own peace 
was his absolute devotion to his Father's will. We 
can find peace in no other way. Any resistance to 
God's will, any disobedience of his law, any wrench- 
ing of our lives out of his hand, must break the peace 
of our hearts. No lesson that he gives ever mars our 
peace if we receive it with willing, teachable spirit and 
strive to learn it just as he has written it out for us. 
If we take the lessons just as our Master gives them 
to us, we shall make our life all music and we shall 
find peace. 

98 



13. 



PRAYER IN SORROW. 



"DEING in an agony, he prayed," is the Tecord of 
our Saviour's Gethsemane experience. The les- 
son stands for all time. Like a bright lamp the little 
sentence shines amid the olive trees of the garden. It 
shows us the path to comfort in our time of sorrow. 
Never before or since was there such grief as the Re- 
deemer's that night, but in his prayer he found com- 
fort. As we watch him the hour through we see the 
agony changing as he prayed, until at last its bitter- 
ness was all gone and sweet, blessed peace took its place. 
The gate of prayer is always the gate to comfort. 
There is no other place to go. We may learn also from 
our Lord's Gethsemane how to pray in our Gethsem- 
anes. God will never blame us for asking to have the 
cup removed nor for the intensity of our supplication ; 
but we must always pray with submission. It is when 
we say, in our deepest intensity, " Not my will, but 
thine," that comfort comes, that peace comes. 

JKag 14- 

god's strange schools. 
1VTO books, no universities, can teach us the divine 
art of sympathy. We must be sorely tempted 
ourselves before we can understand what others suffer 

99 



in their temptations. We must have sorrow ourselves 
in some form before we can be real and true comforters 
of others in their times of sorrow. We must walk 
through the deep valley ourselves before we can be 
guide to others in the same shadowy vales. We must 
feel the strain and carry the burden and endure the 
struggle ourselves, and then we can be touched with 
the feeling of sympathy or can give help to others in 
life's sore stress and poignant need. So we see one 
compensation of suffering : it fits us for being in a 
larger sense helpers of others. 

JKas 15* 

THE LARGENESS OP DUTY. 

T\TJTY is always too great for earnest souls. No one 
can do all that he knows he ought to do or that he 
wants to do. When we have done our duty, how- 
ever, day by day, faithfully and earnestly, accord- 
ing to the light and the wisdom given to us at the time, 
it ought not to cause us regret afterward if it appear 
that we might have done it with more wisdom or with 
greater skill. We cannot get the benefits of experi- 
ence until we have had the experience. We cannot 
have manhood's ripe wisdom in the days of our youth. 

100 



15. 

We can always see when a day is done how we might 
have lived it better. We should bring to every hour's 
work our finest skill, our best wisdom, our purest 
strength, and then feel no regret even if it does not 
seem well done. Perfection is ever an unreached goal 
in this life. Duty is always too large for us to do more 
than a fragment of it. 

Hag 16* 

THE TEST OF AMUSEMENTS. 
TS the love of pleasure growing upon you,' gaining the 

power and the ascendency over you ? Is it dulling 
the keenness of your zest for spiritual pleasures ? Is 
it making Bible-study, prayer, communion with Christ, 
meditation upon holy themes, less sweet enjoyments 
than before ? Is it making your hunger for righteous- 
ness, for God, less intense ? Is it interfering with the 
comfort and blessing you used to find in church serv- 
ices, in Christian work? If so, there is only one 
thing to do — to hasten to return to God, to cut off 
the pleasure that is imperiling the soul and to find in 
Christ the joy which the world cannot give and which 
never harms the life. We must test all our pleasures 
by this rule: are they helping us to grow into the 
noblest spiritual beauty? 

101 



. 17+ 

LIVING TO SERVE. 
THRUE life, wherever it is found, is ministry. Men 
think that they rise in life as they get away from 
serving ; but it is the reverse. " Not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister/ ' our Lord gave as the central 
aim and desire of his life. These words give us also 
the ideal for all Christian life. The whole of Christ's 
wonderful biography is focused and printed here. He 
himself holds up the picture as the pattern on which 
every disciple's life is to be fashioned. No one really 
begins to live at all in any worthy sense until selfish- 
ness dies in him and he begins to serve. /We should 
ourselves ask concerning others not how we can use 
them to advance our interests and our welfare, but how 
we can do them good, serve them, become in some 
way blessings to them. 

Mm 18* 

MAKING AND KEEPING FRIENDS. 

TT is worth while to make friends if they are worthy. 
It costs to do it ; we can have friends only by giv- 
ing our life for them and to them. Selfishness never 
wins a friend. We can make others love us only by 
truly loving them. The largest service, if we do not 

102 



love, wins us no real friends. Then the friends we 
have made we should grapple with hooks of steel and 
keep for ever. No friendship should be formed which 
is not beautiful enough for heaven. God will never 
be jealous of the pure human affections we have in 
glory. Even the brightness of Christ's radiance will 
not eclipse for our eyes the faces of the earthly friends 
we shall meet on the golden streets. Loving God 
supremely will not drive out of our hearts the love 
of dear ones knit to us along the years of fellowship 
in joy and sorrow. The better we love Christ, the 
deeper, purer, tenderer and stronger will be our love 
for Christly human friends. 



19. 

WEAVING OUR SOUL'S GARMENTS. 

TATE are all busy weavers. For ever are we throw- 
ing the shuttle back and forth, each moment 
leaving one new thread in the web of our life which 
shall stay there for ever. Every thought, every feel- 
ing, every motion, every light fancy that plays but for 
a moment in the soul, becomes a thread which is in- 
stantly a permanent part of the life we are living. 
Our words and acts are threads clean and beautiful or 

103 



Jflag 19. 

stained and blemished, according to their moral char- 
acter. Thus we are for ever weaving, and the web 
that we make our souls must wear in eternity. How 
important it is that we put into this fabric only threads 
of immortal beauty ! If we do God's will always, and 
train ourselves to think over God's thoughts, and to 
receive into our heart the influences of God's love and 
grace, and to yield ever and only to God's Spirit, we 
shall weave for our souls a seamless robe of righteous- 
ness which shall appear radiant and lovely when all 
earth's garments have faded and crumbled to dust. 

J&ag 20. 

life's real problem. 

TTHE problem of sailing is not to keep the vessel out 
of the water, but to keep the water out of the ves- 
sel. In like manner, the problem of true Christian 
living is not to keep ourselves out of life's cares, trials 
and temptations, but to keep the cares, trials and temp- 
tations out of us. As the sea is the normal element 
for ship-sailing, so care is the normal element of life 
in this world. But we must keep the sea out of our 
heart. Some people make the mistake of letting 
their cares and worries creep into their souls. The 

104 



Jlag 20. 

result is that they grow discontented, fretful, un- 
happy. The secret of peace is to keep the heart free 
from care and anxiety even in the midst of the sorest 
trials. This secret we can have only by opening our 
hearts to Christ. 

2t 

NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD. 

"IXTE must not measure by an earthly standard in 
testing the failure or success of life. There are 
lives which the world crowns as successful, but which 
heaven rates as failures. Then there are others over 
which men drop a tear of pity, but which in God's 
sight are put down as noble successes. All earnest 
Christians do many things which they hope will prove 
blessings to others, which yet in the end seem to fail 
altogether of good result. But we do not know what 
good may yet come out of our true work that has ap- 
peared to fail. "Your labor is not in vain in the 
Lord." It may not show any result at once, but 
somewhere, some time, there will be blessing from 
everything that is done truly for Christ. The old 
water-wheel runs around and around outside the mill. 
It seems to be accomplishing nothing, but the shaft 

105 



21. 

goes through the wall and turns machinery inside, 
making flour to feed the hunger of many or driving 
spindles and weaving beautiful fabrics. Our lives 
may seem, with all their activities, to be leaving no 
result, but they reach into the unseen; and who 
knows what blessings they become, what impressions 
they leave on other lives and in eternity? 

Has 22. 

DOING GOD'S WILL. 

T^OING God's will builds up character in u$. Doing 
God's will builds up in us that which shall never 
need to be torn down. He that doeth the will of God 
abideth for ever. Every obedience of our lives adds 
a new touch of beauty on our soul. Every true thing 
we do in Christ's name, though it leave no mark any- 
where else in God's universe, leaves an imperishable 
mark on our own life. Every deed of kindness or un- 
selfishness that we perform, with love in our hearts for 
Christ, though it bless no other soul in all the wide 
world, leaves its benediction on ourselves. We are 
sure, therefore, of getting a blessing in our own life 
when we are obedient, even though we impart no 
good to any other. 

106 



JKag 23* 

GIVING TO BEGGARS. 

TPO the blind man begging by the wayside, to the 
poor wretch that comes to our door for alms, to 
the crippled old woman who sits muffled up on a door- 
step and holds out a wrinkled hand, we owe something 
if we are Christians. We may not give money — usu- 
ally we had better not give money — but we ought to 
give something. We represent Christ in this world, 
and we ought to treat every such case of need and 
misfortune as our Master would do if he were precisely 
in our place. We ought to give at least a patient an- 
swer, a kindly look and sympathetic attention. This 
from Turgenefl's " Poems in Prose " : "I was walking 
in the street ; a beggar stopped me — a frail old man. 
His tearful eyes, blue lips, rough rags, disgusting sores, 
— oh, how horribly poverty had disfigured the unhap- 
py creature ! He stretched out to me his red, swollen, 
filthy hand ; he groaned and whimpered for alms. I 
felt in all my pockets. No purse, watch or handker- 
chief did I find. I had left them all at home. The 
beggar waited, and his outstretched hand twitched and 
trembled slightly. Embarrassed and confused, I seized 
his dirty hand and pressed it : * Don't be vexed with 
me, brother ! I have nothing with me, brother.' The 
beggar raised his bloodshot eyes to mine, his blue lips 

107 



23. 

smiled and he returned the pressure of my chilled 
fingers. ' Never mind, brother/ stammered he; 'I 
thank you for this ; this too was a gift, brother/ I 
felt that I too had received a gift from my brother." 
The brotherly word was holiest alms. 

24 

HOW TO KNOW CHRIST. 

TPO some Christ is a creed and a pattern of life, but 
not a personal friend. There are many who know 
well the " historic Christ," but to whom he is only a 
person who lived nearly two thousand years ago. They 
read his biography as they read that of St. Paul or St. 
John, admiring and wondering, and ofttimes saying, in 
the lines of the children's hymn, 

" I wish that his hands had been placed on my head, 
That his arms had been thrown around me, 
And that I might have seen his kind look when he said, 
1 Let the little ones come unto me.' " 

They think of his sweet life as but a vanished dream. 
Or, if they realize his resurrection, he is to them an 
absent friend, like a dear one journeying in another 

108 



24 

land — real, living, true, trusted, but far away. But all 
such miss the sweetest blessedness of knowing Christ. 
He does not belong to the past nor to the far away, 
but is a Friend who would come into the actual daily 
life of each of his believing ones. No mother was 
ever so much to her child as Jesus would be to us if we 
would let him into our life. How can we get this bless- 
ing of personal knowledge of Christ and conscious 
personal friendship with him ? Trust him and obey 
him, and you will learn to know him and love him. 

25* 

NOTHING GOOD COMES EASILY. 

TTNSELFISHNESS, even in its smallest acts and 
manifestations, costs some sacrifice. Work for 
others which costs us nothing is scarcely worth doing. 
It takes heart's blood to heal hearts. It is those who 
sow in tears that shall reap in joy. Take easy work 
if you will, work that costs you nothing ; give only 
what you will not miss; spare yourself from self- 
denial and waste and sacrifice ; but be not surprised 
if your hands are empty in the harvest-time. We 
must give if we are to receive. We must sow if we 
would reap. 

109 



JHag 26. 

god's storehouses. 

T^ACH step in the life of faith is toward richer bless- 
ing. Are you God's child ? There is nothing be- 
fore you in the unopened future but goodness. Every 
new experience, whether of joy or sorrow, will be a 
new storehouse of goodness for you. Even in the heart 
of disaster you will still find goodness enfolded. Even 
your disappointments will disclose truer, richer bless- 
ings than if your own hopes had been realized. Here 
is a lens through which every true Christian may see 
his own path clear to the end — from goodness to richer 
goodness, from glory to glory, the last step through the 
opening door of heaven into the presence of the King. 

JHag 27. 

BRUISED REEDS. 

P HEIST is building his kingdom with earth's broken 
things. Men want only the strong, the successful, 
the victorious, the unbroken, in building their king- 
doms ; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those 
who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken 
lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot 
take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. 
He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and 

110 



JHas 27- 

make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. 
He can lift earth's saddest failure up to heaven's 
glory. 

JHas 28. 

OPPOSITION A MEANS OF GRACE. 

CPIRITUAL life needs opposition to bring out its 
best development. It flourishes most luxuriantly 
in adverse circumstances. The very temptations which 
make our life one unceasing warfare train us into true 
soldiers of Christ. The hardnesses of our experiences, 
which seem to us to be more than we can possibly en- 
dure, make the very school of life for us in which we 
learn our best lessons and grow into whatever beauty 
and Christ-likeness of character we attain. 

Jlag 29. 

life's possibilities. 

HTHINK of all the magnificent powers God has put 
into these lives of ours. He has given us minds 
to think, to reason, to imagine, to roam amid the stars, 
to wander into the very borders of infinity, to climb 
the golden stairs of faith even into the midst of heaven's 

ill 



29. 

brightness. He has given us hearts to feel, to suffer, to 
rejoice, to love. He has put into our beings the possi- 
bilities of the noblest achievements and the loftiest at- 
tainments. Oh, what a shame it is for one born to live 
in immortal glory, called to be a child of God, to be- 
come like the Son of God, yet to be content with a 
poor earthly life and to live without reaching up to- 
ward God and heaven ! 

IHag 30. 

OUR soldiers' graves. 

AX^E do not always remember, as we enjoy our nation- 
al blessings and comforts, what they cost those 
who won them for us, and those who have conserved 
them and passed them down to us. We strew flowers 
on the graves of our soldiers who fell, and tell in song 
and speech of their heroic deeds. This is well. We 
should never let the gratitude die out of our hearts as 
we think of the blood that was shed in saving our 
country. But gratitude is not enough. This redeemed 
country is a sacred trust in our hands. We are now 
the conservators of its glory. We have more to do 
than sing the praises of its dead heroes and soldiers. 
There are battles yet to fight — battles for national 

112 



Jlag 30. 

honor, for righteousness, for truth, for purity, for relig- 
ion. We must hold up the old flag in the face of all 
enemies. "While we honor the memory of those who 
died in patriotic and holy war, let us ourselves be 
worthy soldiers in the great moral war that never 
ceases, and patriots loving country more than party, 
and truth and righteousness more than political pre- 
ferment and reward. 

31* 

MASTERING MISFORTUNE. 

A N English prisoner, suffering from persecution, was 
cheered for one hour each day by a little spot of 
sunshine on his dungeon-wall. Through a grating 
high up the sun's rays streamed down into his cell for 
this little time. He found on his floor an old nail and 
a stone, and with these rude implements he cut upon 
the wall while the sunlight lay there a rough image of 
the Christ upon his cross. Thus he mastered his mis- 
fortune, getting blessing out of it. The incident has 
its lesson for us all. Whatever the calamity or the 
disaster that builds its dungeon-walls about you, never 
let despair lay its chilly hand upon you. Never yield 
to the gloom. Never let the darkness into your soul. 
8 113 



31. 

There is no dungeon so deep and dark but down into 
its chilling gloom the rays of God's love stream. In 
the light of these fashion some new beauty on your 
soul. Carve on the wall of your heart the image of 
the Christ. Master your misfortune, and make it yield 
blessing to you. Conquered calamity becomes your 
helper and leaves beauty on your soul ; but let your 
trouble master you, and it leaves an ineffaceable scar 
upon your life. 

Sunt I- 

BEAUTIES OP NATURE. 

HPHEY miss many a tender joy who do not always 
hold their hearts in sympathy with nature. They 
lose many a whisper of love that drops from God's 
lips who have not ears open to catch the voices of 
nature. They fail to behold many a lovely vision of 
beauty who have not learned to use their eyes in ad- 
miring the exquisite things that God has scattered 
everywhere in such glorious profusion. Yet most of 
us walk amid these inspirations, these rare pictures, 
these sweet voices, and neither feel nor see nor hear. 
God never meant us to get so little comfort or joy from 
the lovely things with which he has filled our earth. 

114 



Mm 2* 

FAILING IN OUR LITTLE PART. 

POD is not so limited in his resources of power that 
if one little human hand somewhere fails to do its 
appointed duty his great cause will be defeated. He 
has large plans, in which the humblest of us have our 
own allotted place and part. But there is no com- 
pulsion brought to bear upon us. We can refuse to do 
our little piece of work if we choose. God's plan will 
then go on without us, and other hands will do what 
we refuse to do. The only effect of our failure in the 
duty assigned us will be in ourselves. Our own hearts 
will be hurt by our failure in duty, and we shall be set 
aside, missing the honor and blessing which would have 
been ours had we done our part. 

Mm 3. 

LEAVING ALL TO GOD. 

A S we go through life we learn more and more to 
doubt our own wishing and choosing as we see how 
little really comes from our own ways and plans. We 
learn not to choose at all ourselves, but to let God 
choose for us. No doubt we miss heavenly blessings 
many a time because we have not faith to take them 

115 



Sunt 3* 

in their disguise of pain or grief, preferring our own 
way to our Father's. Then God sometimes lets us 
have what in our willfulness we persist in choosing, 
just to teach us that our own way is not the best. 
We learn at last to plead, " Bless me, my Father," 
not daring to indicate in what manner the blessing 
shall come, but preferring that it shall be as God 
wills. 

Suite 4* 

"AS WE FORGIVE." 

Xfc[T& ought to keep no count of offences and forgive- 
nesses, and the time never ought to come when 
we shall say we can forgive one no more. When we 
are smarting under some injury done us by another, 
and when our feeling of resentment is burning into a 
flame within us, we should remember that the wrong 
we have done to God is infinitely greater, and that he 
in his love has freely forgiven us. Should we not, then, 
be willing to forgive others their little wrongs against 
us? This is why our Lord put into the prayer he 
taught his disciples the words, " Forgive us our debts 
as we forgive." He wants us always to remember that 
we ourselves need forgiveness, and that if we would 
be like him we must forgive as he does. 

116 



3unt 5* 

THE BLESSING OF ASSURANCE. 

"[7 VERY Christian's privilege is to enjoy unbroken 
assurance while living close to Christ. God wants 
us to trust him just as fully in the shadow as in the 
sunshine. There is grace enough in Christ to give 
light and joy in the darkest experience. Yet it is 
just as true that many of God's noblest saints, in all 
ages, have had seasons of depression, when they lost 
the joy of salvation and could not speak triumphantly 
of their hope. It is true, also, that there have been 
many devoted followers of Christ who never in their 
life could get farther than to hope they were Christ's 
disciples. Is this the best that the love of God and 
the grace of Christ can do for those who are saved ? 

3une 6* 

"I AM READY." 

A^HATEVER command God gives, we should in- 
stantly and cheerfully answer, " Yes, Lord ; I 
am ready to obey." It is not hard to say "Yes'' 
when God leads us only in easy paths, where the flow- 
ers are strewn, where the way is smooth and agreeable. 
But sometimes the path is covered with thorns and is 
rough and steep, or is through fire or flood ; still, we 
are always to say, " Yes." If it is to some trial or 

m 



3ime 6* 

cross-bearing or sacrifice that God calls us, our answer 
should ever be the same. We ought to be able to trust 
him when our eyes can see no blessing or good in the 
way he would take us. Every path of God leads to a 
rich joy. 

3tme 7; 

CHOICE OF FRIENDS. 

TA/'E should choose friends whom we can take into 
every part of our life, into every closest com- 
munion, into every holy joy of our heart, into every 
consecration and service, into every hope, and between 
whom and us there shall never be a point at which we 
shall not be in sympathy. We ought to accept only 
the friendship that will bring blessing to our lives, that 
will enrich our character, that will stimulate us to bet- 
ter and holier things, that will weave threads of silver 
and gold inte our web of life, whose every influence 
will be a lasting benediction. 

3tme 8* 

life's opportunities. 

LL the days come to us filled with opportunities. 



A 



There are opportunities for gathering knowledge 
and for growing wise. There are opportunities for 
growing in character, becoming stronger, truer, purer, 

118 



3unt 8. 

nobler, more Christ-like. There are opportunities for 
doing heroic things for Christ. There are opportunities 
for performing gentle ministries and for rendering sweet 
services in Christ's name to those who need loving sym- 
pathy and deeds of kindness. Opportunities come to 
all — come continually, on all the common days, and 
come ofttimes in the simplest common things. The 
trouble with too many of us is that we do not improve 
them, do not seize them as they pass. 

June 9. 

VICTORY BY STANDING. 

/^NE of the first things in military training is to learn 
to stand well. Old soldiers will tell you that there 
is nothing which so tests the courage and the obedience 
of men as to be required to stand still on the field and 
hold a position in the face of the enemy. Ofttimes the 
battle depends upon standing firm. The same princi- 
ple applies in all life. Much of Christian duty is not ac- 
tive, bustling work, but quiet, patient waiting. There 
come many times in the experience of every life when 
victory can be gained in no other way. We must stand 
still and wait for God. Immeasurable harm is wrought in 
personal lives and in the work of God by the impatience 
that cannot wait for the divine bidding to go forward. 

119 



Suite 10* 

POWER OF THE TONGUE. 

'"THE tongue's power of blessing is simply incalcula- 
ble. It can impart valuable knowledge, making 
others wiser. It can utter kindly sentences that will 
comfort sorrow or cheer despondency. It can breathe 
thoughts that will arouse, inspire and quicken heedless 
souls, and even call up dead souls to life. It can sing 
,songs which will live for ever in blessed influence and 
ministry. Such power we should consecrate to God 
and hold ever pure for him. The lips that speak 
God's name in prayer and Christian song, and that 
utter vows of fidelity to Christ, should never defile 
themselves with any forms of corrupt speech. They 
should be kept only for Christ. 

3tme XI* 

INDIVIDUALITY OF CHARACTER. 

PHARACTER is personal. It is not a possession we 
can share with another. We can give a hungry 
man part of our loaf of bread. We can divide our 
money with one who needs. But character is some- 
thing that we cannot give away or communicate. The 
brave soldier cannot share his courage with the pale, 

120 



Suite !!♦ 

trembling recruit who fights by his side in the battle. 
The pure, gentle woman cannot give part of her purity 
and gentleness to the defiled and hardened sister-woman 
whom she meets. Character is our own, a part of our 
very being. It grows in us along the years. Acts re- 
peated become habits, and character is made up in the 
end of the habits which have been repeated so often as 
to become a permanent part of the life. 

Sunt 12* 

WORK FOR OTHERS. 

"tXTE can do our best work always when we do it not 
for ourselves, but that it may bless others. If 
the motive in all ambition, all toil, all effort, is to be- 
come wiser, stronger, greater, more influential, in order 
that we may do more in Christ's name for our fellow- 
men, then whatever we do will be beautiful and noble. 
The motive exalts and ennobles the work. We get 
the largest measure of good for ourselves from what 
we do when our first aim is to do good to another. If 
you would get the best from any good thing, receive it 
from God and then hasten to minister it in Christ's 
name to others. The richest blessing comes not in the 
receiving, but in the giving and doing. 

121 



3\xnt XX 

SECOND-HAND BIBLE TRUTHS. 

1WTANY Christians have their heads stored full of 
catechism, creed and Scripture, and yet when 
trouble comes they have not one truth on which they 
can really lean or trust their weight, or which gives 
them any actual support or help. Piles of doctrines, 
but no rod and staff to lean on in weakness. Lamps 
hung away in great clusters, but not one of them burn- 
ing, to throw its light upon the darkness. Bundles of 
alpenstocks tied up in creed and text, but no staff to 
walk with over the dark mountains. Let us learn to 
study the Scriptures for ourselves, and to know what 
we should believe and why we should believe it. Sec- 
ond-hand Bible truth is not the kind of food our 
souls need. 

Suite 14 

MISREADING PROVIDENCES. 

"XXTE are all apt to interpret " providences " in ac- 
cordance with our own desires. When we are 
wishing to be led in a certain way we are quite sure to 
find " providences " that seem to favor our own pref- 
erence. We must be careful in interpreting the mean- 
ing of events and occurrences. We are not to enter 
every door that is thrown open before us. The devil 

122 



Mm 14 

opens doors of temptation, but we are not to call op- 
portunities to sin guiding " providences." God's voice 
in providence never contradicts the voice of his word. 

3tme 15* 

KEEPING A CHILD'S HEART. 

"\XTE ought to keep our hearts warm and full of kind- 
liness and sweet humanness, even through the 
harshest experiences. Many of us find life hard and 
full of pain. We meet misfortunes, sore trials, dis- 
appointments. We should not allow these harsh ex- 
periences to deaden our sensibilities or make us stoical 
or sour. Nothing but the love of God shed abroad in 
us by the Holy Spirit can keep any of us in such gen- 
tleness and tenderness amid the stern and severe ex- 
periences of life. Yet it is possible to carry the gentle 
heart of a little child through all life's hardness and 
chill into the fullest and ripest old age. 



Sunt 16* 

SETTING PAIN TO MUSIC. 

N "Marble Faun," Miriam, the broken-hearted 
singer, puts into a burst of song the pent-up grief 
of her soul. This was better, surely, than if she had 

123 



i 



Sunt 16. 

let it forth in a wild shriek of pain. The religion of 
Christ would teach us to put into song every anguish 
and all sorrow. It would set to music our deepest, sad- 
dest experiences. It would have us sing even our 
heart's bitterest plaints. It gives us anthems rather 
than dirges for the utterance of our sorest griefs. It 
helps us to do this by revealing to our faith's vision 
something of beauty and blessing in every dark hour, 
something other eyes cannot see. It lets us hear in 
our deepest trials the voices of divine love, encourag- 
ing, cheering, assuring us. Surely the lesson is worth 
the learning. It is nobler to sing a victorious song in 
time of trial than to lie crushed in grief. Songs bless 
the world more than wails and tears. They also honor 
God more. It is better for our own heart, too, to put 
our sorrows and pains into songs. 

June 17* 

DIVINE DISCONTENT. 

'THE ideal Christian life is one of insatiable thirst, 
of quenchless yearning, of divine discontent, 
wooed ever on by visions of new life, new joy, new 
attainments. The trouble with too many of us is that 
we are too well satisfied with ourselves as we are. We 

124 



3unt 17. 

have attained a little measure of peace, of holiness, 
of faith, of joy, of knowledge of Christ, and we are 
not hungering for the larger possible attainments. Oh, 
pray for discontent ! With all the infinite possibilities 
of spiritual life before you, do not settle down on a 
little patch of dusty ground at the mountain's foot in 
restful content. Be not content till you reach the 
mountain's summit. 

Sunt X8* 

THE POWER OP FAITH. 

POD can use very weak and imperfect agents. He 
can do great things with poor instruments. But 
there is one kind of person he will not use. He will 
not send blessing to the world through an unbelieving 
heart. If you would be a vessel meet for the Mas- 
ter's use, you must have faith. Believe in Christ. Be- 
lieve that he is able and willing to do the " greater 
things " which he has promised to do through his dis- 
ciples. Open your heart to receive him and all that 
he brings. Expect him to do great things through 
you. If we have faith, there is no limit to what 
Christ will do for us. Faith lays our powers in 
Christ's hands, as the chisel lays itself in the hands 
of the sculptor for the carving of the marble statue. 

125 



BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, 

HPHERE are causes enough to separate people and to 
produce frictions and alienations. Let us not add 
to the world's bitterness and grief by ever encourag- 
ing strife or putting a single coal on the fire of anger. 
Rather let us try to heal the little rifts we find in peo- 
ple's friendships. The unkind thoughts of another we 
find in any one's mind, let us seek to change to kindly 
thoughts. We can do no more Christ-like service in 
this world than habitually and continually to seek to 
promote peace between man and man, to keep people 
from drifting apart and to draw friends and neighbors 
closer together in love. 

Sunt 20. 

" WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY." 

AX^E become truly beautiful just in the measure that 
we become like God. Human holiness is not 
always beautiful. There are men who are good, but 
not lovely. They have qualities that repel others. 
But true holiness is attractive. We ought to make 
our religion so beautiful that all who look upon us 
shall be drawn to our Master. We do dishonor to 

126 



Sunt 20* 

Christ when we profess to be his people, and yet show 
in our character, disposition and life things that are 
unlike Christ. How will men of the world know what 
true religion is if you and I do not show them its 
beauty in our lives ? We should seek not only what- 
soever things are just and true and honest, but also 
whatsoever things are lovely. 

3une 21* 

LOVE FOR THE BRETHREN. 

TT is easy enough to love some people — people with 
tastes like ours, people who belong to our " set," 
people who are particularly kind to us. But that is 
not the way Christ wants us to live and to love. 
True Christian fellowship takes in all the followers of 
our Lord, all who bear his name. We are to be known 
as disciples by our love for one anocher. It requires 
grace to love all Christians. We must have the love 
of God in our hearts before we can do it. We must 
be close to Christ before we can be close to each other. 
We must cultivate the thoughts and feelings of the 
brotherhood that is in Christ. The humblest believer 
is our brother, because he is a Christian. We are one 
in Christ. 

127 



3unc 22. 

BETWEEN THEE AND HIM ALONE. 

T ET us learn to seal our lips for ever on the wretched, 
miserable habit of telling the world about the 
motes in our neighbor's eye. Who made us a judge 
over him ? Tell him his faults between thee and him 
alone. You can find chapter and verse for that. Tell 
him his faults, if you will, with love and sympathy 
in your heart, confessing your own to him meanwhile. 
Tell him his faults because you want to help him to 
become nobler, lovelier and better, because you cannot 
bear to see a stain upon him, not because you want to 
humble him or glory over him. Tell him his faults in 
secret if you are ready for such holy work ; but do 
not, do not tell the world of his faults. 



3urtt 23. 

CHRIST-LIKENESS AT HOME. 

T/'EEP the lamp of love shining day after day amid 
the multitude of home cares and home duties, 
amid the criticisms of home playfulness and thought- 
lessness, amid the thousand little irritations and prov- 
ocations of home-life which so tend to break peace and 

128 



3unt 23* 

mar sweet temper. Let home love be of the kind that 
never faileth. Wherever else, far away or near, you 
pour the bright beams of your Christian life, be sure 
you brighten the space close about you in your own 
home. No goodness and gentleness outside will atone 
for unlovingness and uncharitableness at home. 



%mz 24* 

GETTING READY FOR TEMPTATION. 

AX/E must all meet temptation, and the tempter 
comes so suddenly and so insidiously that if we 
cannot instantly repel his assault we shall be foiled. 
There is nothing like texts of Scripture to drive Satan 
away. We need to have our quiver full of these pol- 
ished shafts, these invincible darts, and to keep them 
ever ready to draw out on a moment's notice to hurl 
at our enemy. The only way to do this is to make the 
word of God our daily study, storing in our memory 
its precious texts, its counsels, its promises, its warn- 
ings. Then we shall never be surprised unprepared 
or defenceless, but for every temptation shall have a 
dart ready to draw out and hurl at our adversary. 
9 129 



June 25. 

THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 

POD puts something of himself into every true 
human life. He helps and blesses us through our 
friendships, but these are meant only to help us up to 
himself. Christ Jesus is the only man in whom we 
may have eternal trust. All other friendships are but 
fragments ; his is the perfect friendship. Back of the 
sweet, gentle humanities in him, which make it so easy 
for us to come to him and repose in him, is the might 
of the eternal God. When we come to this precious 
human love, for which our hearts crave and which 
seems so satisfying, we know that infinite divine full- 
ness lies back of the tender warmth. The humanity 
comes very close to us, and it is for us to lay our heads 
upon its bosom. Then when we lean on him we are 
lifted up in the arms of Omnipotence. 

Suite 26. 

WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH. 

ipiND your work wherever Christ has put you. Do 
whatever he gives you to do. Strive to be full of 
Christ ; then strive to he Christ to the souls about you 
that are lost and perishing or that are in need or sor- 
row. Seek to make one little spot of this world 

130 



3unt 26. 

brighter, better, purer. Christ has redeemed you and 
lifted you up, that you may redeem and lift up other 
souls about you. If your hand is only ready for ser- 
vice, you will always find work ready for your hand. 

3unt 27. 

DOING GOD'S WILL. 

TXTE are never to be rebellious or slow to submit to 
God ; but we must be sure that we have done 
all we can before we fold our hands and " Thy will be 
done." There come many experiences, however, in 
which we can do nothing and can only submit. We 
must not only ourselves strive faithfully in all things 
to do the will of God, but must suffer it to be done in 
us, even when it lays us low in the dust, even when it 
strips us bare and shatters all our joys. This will is 
to be accepted, too, not rebelliously, with murmuring 
and complaint, but songfully, joyfully, lovingly. 

3tme 28. 

CREED AND LIFE. 

"TT makes small difference what a man believes, what 
doctrines he holds : it is conduct that counts." 

131 



3mxt 28. 

That is the way some people talk as they fling their 
flippant sneers at creeds. But it does matter what one 
believes. Wrong believing leads to wrong living. The 
heathen who worships a god that he conceives of as 
lustful, cruel and unholy becomes himself lustful, cruel 
and unholy. The Christian who worships a God who 
is revealed to him as holy, righteous, pure and good, 
becomes himself holy, righteous, pure and good. 
Thus beliefs shape the life. It is important, therefore, 
that we know the truths about the character and will 
of Christ, as our conception of Christ will print itself 
upon our life. 

Sunt 29. 

FINDING THE GOOD IN GOD'S WORLD. 

THANKFULNESS or unthankfulness is largely a 
matter of eyes. Two men look at the same scene : 
one beholds the defects, the imperfections ; the other 
beholds the beauty, the brightness. If you cannot 
find things to be thankful for to-day, every day, the 
fault is in yourself, and you ought to pray for a new 
heart, a heart to see God's goodness and to praise him. 
A happy heart transfigures all the world for us. It 
finds something to be thankful for in the barest cir- 

132 



Sunt 29. 

cumstances, even in the night of sorrow. Let us train 
ourselves to see the beauty and the goodness in God's 
world, in our own lot, and then we shall stop grum- 
bling, and all our experience shall start songs of praise 
in our heart. 

June 30. 

NOT YOUR WORK, BUT YOU. 

TT is not so much your work as you that God wants. 
At least he wants you first, and then your work. 
Service from hearts that are not really consecrated to 
God is not pleasing to him. We are in danger of for- 
getting this in our busy, bustling days. It is easier to 
offer God a few activities than to give him a heart. 
The tendency of the religious life at present is to work, 
to service, rather than to loving God. So we need to 
remind ourselves continually that loving must come 
before doing and serving. The largest and most con- 
spicuous work will find no acceptance with God if our 
hearts are not his. 

" 'Tis not thy work the Master needs, but thee — 
The obedient spirit, the believing heart, 
The child obedient, trustful, glad to be 
Where'er He will, to stay or to depart. 
133 



3ulg I* 

THE VALUE OP TIME. 

rjUR days are like beautiful summer fields as God 
gives them to us. The minutes are blooming flow- 
ers and silvery grass-blades and stalks of wheat with 
their germs of golden grains. The hours are trees 
with their rich foliage or vines with their blossom- 
prophecies of purple clusters. Oh, the fair, blessed 
possibilities of the days and hours and minutes as 
they come to us from God's hands ! But what did you 
do with yesterday ? How does the little acre of that 
one day look to you now ? What are we doing with 
our time? Every moment God gives us has in it a 
possibility of beauty as well as something to be ac- 
counted for. Are we using our time for God? 

Ms 2* 

FOR THE SAKE OP CHRIST. 

T OVE to Christ must be the spring and inspiration 
of all duty, all heroism, all fine achievement, all 
service of our fellow-men. "In His Name" is the 
true motto of all Christian living. Serving our fel- 
low-men amounts to nothing in Heaven's sight if it is 
not done for the sake of Christ. The service must 
be really rendered to Christ, no matter to whom the 

134 



Mg 2+ 

kindness is shown, or otherwise there is no exaltation 
in it, however beautiful it may be in itself. Things 
we do from any other motive have no acceptableness 
in the sight of God. 

Ms 3. 

WATCH YOUR HEART-LIFE. 

AX^E need to watch our heart -life, for it is in thoughts, 
feelings, dispositions, moods, tempers, affections, 
that all departure from Christ begins. We need to 
watch our inner spiritual state. The world may see 
no abatement in our zeal, in our religious activity, in 
our earnest advocacy of the truth, and yet there may 
be less prayerfulness, less love for Christ, less tender- 
ness of conscience, less hunger for righteousness, less 
desire for holiness. Is Christ more to you now than 
ever he was before ? Does his love constrain you with 
overmastering sway ? Can you say, with Zinzendorf, 
" I have only one passion, and that is He " ? Is your 
heart right? 

Mg 4* 

PRAYING FOR OUR COUNTRY. 

AX^E need to pray much for our country. Perhaps 
we err in making our prayers ordinarily only for 

135 



Julg 4- 

ourselves and for our own little world. Certainly our 
country ought to have a place in the daily supplica- 
tions of every Christian. Those who rule over us 
ought to be continually remembered. They are men, 
and need divine wisdom and guidance. They are men 
under the sway of partisan influence, and we need to 
pray that they be kept free from any domination 
which would lead them to forget God. We need to 
pray for our institutions, that they be kept pure and 
holy — that righteousness may prevail throughout the 
land. We need to pray for all our people, that they 
may be made good citizens, that uprightness and in- 
tegrity may characterize them. " Happy is that peo- 
ple whose God is the Lord." 



Mg 5* 

OVER- ANSWERED PRAYER. 

MO true, faith- winged prayer goes unanswered, but 
many a prayer that seems to us unanswered is 
really over-answered. The very thing we ask God 
does not grant, because he is able to do something 
infinitely better for us. We ask only for bodily help 
or relief, and he sees that we need far more some deep 

136 



3ulg 5* 

spiritual blessing. He answers our soul's needs before 
he gratifies our personal wishes. We ask for a tem- 
poral favor ; he does not give it to us, but instead he 
bestows upon us a spiritual good which will enrich us 
for ever. We ask for the lifting away of a burden or 
the averting of a sorrow ; our plea is not granted in 
form, but instead we receive a new impart ation of the 
power of Christ, or an angel comes from heaven and 
ministers to us. Thus many times our little prayers 
are really over-answered. 

3ulg 6* 

PASS ON YOUR BLESSING. 

POD does not like to bestow his blessings where they 
will be hoarded, but he loves to put them into the 
hands of those who will do the most with them to bless 
their fellows. The central object of true living is to 
be helpful to others. The true life is one devoted to 
Christ, to be used then for him in blessing others. 
Lay every gift at the Master's feet, and then, when it 
has been blessed by him, carry it out to bless others. | 
Bring your barley loaves to Christ, and then, with the' 
spell of his touch upon them, you may feed hungry 
thousands with them. 

137 



Ms 7* 

UNDER GOD'S ORDERS. 

"IXTHEREVER God puts us, he has something def- 
inite just there for us to do — something which he 
has brought us there on purpose to do. There is some- 
thing he created you specially to do. He brings you 
every day into places where it is true that you are 
there for a definite duty. Every time we find our- 
selves in the presence of a need or an opportunity for 
helpfulness we may well stop and ask if God has not 
brought us to this point for this very thing. We are 
ever really under orders. Ofttimes the orders are 
sealed, and are opened only as the hours move. To 
realize this gives all our commonest life a sacredness 
that should make us reverent. We are continually 
serving our King. 

Ms 8* 

THE BEGINNINGS OP BITTERNESS. 

T ET us instantly crush the beginnings of envy, jeal- 
ousy and hate in our hearts, never allowing the 
day to close on a bitter feeling. The hour of evening 
prayer, when we bow at God's feet, should always be a 
time for getting right everything that may have gone 

138 



Ms 8* 

wrong with us and in us during the day. Then e very- 
injury should be forgiven when we pray, " Forgive us, 
as we forgive." Then every spark of envy or jeal- 
ousy or anger should be quenched and the love of 
Christ should be allowed to flood our hearts. We 
should never allow the sun to go down on our anger. 



Ms 9. 

WRITTEN NOT WITH INK. 

HPHE world does not read the Bible nor come to 
church to hear the minister. All it learns about 
Christ and the Christian life it must learn from those 
who bear Christ's name and represent him. If all 
church-members lived truly consecrated lives, holy, 
beautiful, separate from the world, loyal to Christ in 
business, in pleasure, in all things, it is impossible to 
estimate what the saving power of the Church would 
be in example alone. It is an awful thought that pro- 
fessing Christians, by the inconsistencies of their per- 
sonal lives, lead souls to reject the Saviour. We are 
all responsible for the influence of our example. Our 
lives should be New-Testament pages that all could 
read. 

139 



Ms 10* 

GRACE FOR THE DAY. 

CLOD does not give us his grace as he gives his sun- 
shine — pouring it out on all alike. He discrimi- 
nates in spiritual blessings. He gives strength accord- 
ing to our need. His eye is ever on us in tender, 
watchful love, and what we need at the time he sup- 
plies. He gives grace for grace. When one grace is 
exhausted another is ready. The grace is always 
timely. It is not given in large store in advance of 
the need, but is ready always in time. It may not al- 
ways be what we wish, but it is always what we really 
want. 

Ms XX* 

THE TRANSFIGURED LIFE. 

UOLY thoughts in the heart transfigure the life. 
Your daily thoughts build up your character. 
Our hearts are the quarries where the blocks are fash- 
ioned which we build into our life-temple. If our 
thoughts and meditations are good, beautiful, true, 
pure, loving and gentle, our life will grow into Christ- 
likeness. Professor Drummond tells of a young girl 
whose character ripened into rare beauty — one of the 
loveliest lives, he says, that ever bloomed on earth. 

140 



Ms 11* 

She always wore about her neck a little locket. But 
no one was ever allowed to open the locket or to know 
what it contained. Once, however, in a time of dan- 
gerous illness, she permitted a friend to look within it, 
and there she saw the words, " Whom having not seen 
I love." That was the secret of the dear child's trans- 
figuration of character — loving the unseen Christ. The 
same love, warm, tender, earnest, glowing in the heart 
year after year, will transfigure any life into heavenly 
beauty. 

Ma X2. 

THE BLESSING OF DOING. 

TT is the building of character that should be our 
central aim in all life. Business, school, home, 
church, reading, pleasure, struggle, work, sorrow, — 
all are but means to the one end. I do not care how 
much money you men made last year ; but let me ask 
earnestly what mark last year's business made upon 
your character. The growth of one's manhood is of 
infinitely more importance than the growth of one's for- 
tune. Everything we do leaves its impress within, 
upon our soul. We are building life all the while, 
whatever we are doing. The work itself may fail, but 

141 



Ms 12* 

in the worker's disappointment, amid the failure of 
his plans, the work on his character goes on. Even 
in defeats the struggling leaves a recompense within. 
Giving, though nothing good comes from the gift, 
blesses the giver. 

" In the strength of the endeavor, 
In the temper of the giver, 
In the loving of the lover, 
Lies the hidden recompense. 

" In the sowing of the sower, 
In the fleeting of the flower, 
In the fading of each hour, 
Lurks eternal recompense." 

Mg 13* 

THE INFLUENCE OF WORDS. 

YftTOT&DS are so easily spoken that we forget what 
power they have to give pleasure or pain. They 
seem to vanish so utterly the moment they have dropped 
from our lips that we forget they do not go away at all, 
but linger, either like barbed arrows in the heart where 
they struck or like fragrant flowers distilling perfumes. 
No matter when we talk with others or on what theme, 
however playful or light, we should always try to speak 

142 



Ms 13* 

some thoughtful word before we part, some word that 
will give strength or hope or cheer or help. We may 
not meet our friend again. 

Ms t4- 

SEEING ONLY THE FAULTS. 

'"THERE are some people who walk through God's 
fair world and in the midst of men and women 
whose lives shine with bright qualities and dazzling 
gems of character, and yet they have no eyes for any 
of these radiant beauties. But for every fault and 
blemish they have the sharpest vision. They judge 
uncharitably. They think evil where there is none. 
This is one of the things Christ condemns. We should 
train ourselves away from a habit of life so unchris- 
tian. We should seek to have eyes only for the beauty, 
not for the blemishes. 

Ms 15. 

HOME-WORK FOR CHRIST. 

TATE are not truly Christians if we are doing nothing 

for our Lord. But the work of Christ is not all 

found in the things we do in the Church. Let no one 

143 



Ms 15* 

fret who finds no time from love's devoted service for 
outside or public work for Christ. You are doing 
most beautiful things for Christ in your unselfish toil, 
in your sick-room ministry, in your care for your chil- 
dren, in your deeds of kindness to the invalid within 
your own doors. Only do all in Christ's name, and it 
will shine like angel's work. Some people God seems 
to ordain for just such ministry and to keep ever busy 
out of the world's sight. Let none such fret that they 
cannot take part in the public work of the Church. 

Mg 16* 

PRAYER WITHOUT PROMISE. 

HPHEKE are human lives that never learn to sing 
the songs of faith and peace and love until they 
enter the darkness of sorrow and trial. Would it be 
true love for these for God to hear their prayer for the 
removal of every sorrow and pain ? There is no prom- 
ise for the prayer that God would take out of our life, 
out of any life, the hindrances, the griefs, the bitter- 
nesses. If we pray such a prayer, it must be simply 
a humble, shrinking request, which we shall refer at 
once, without undue urging, to the wise and perfect 
will of God. 

144 



MS \7. 

"ye did it not." 

^IXTE are too apt to neglect opportunities of helping 
others and of relieving distress, never thinking 
that we are sinning against Christ, that we are indeed 
leaving him unhelped and unrelieved when we might 
have given him sweet comfort. We forget that neglects 
are sins. " Ye did it not " is the charge, in our Lord's 
picture of the Judgment, against those who are bidden 
to depart. The things we have failed to do will be 
the things that shall turn the scales on that great trial- 
day. We must meet our neglects as well as our posi- 
tive sins. 

VISIONS IN THE WORDS OP CHRIST. 

17 VEEY word of Christ that we ponder deeply opens 
to us a vision of beauty or excellence — something 
very lovely, a fragment of Christ's own image — and 
we should instantly strive to paint the vision on our 
own life, to get the beauty, the excellence, the loveli- 
ness into our own life. Let us learn to be loyal to the 
word of Christ ; not only to know it and ponder it 
and meditate upon it, but to do it, and to allow it thus 

10 145 



Ms 18* 

to shape and mould our whole being into its own holy 
beauty. If we hide Christ's words in our hearts, they 
will transform us into his likeness. 

Ms 19- 

OUR WEAK HOURS. 

"UlTE are not at all times equally strong. There are 
days with all of us when we throw off tempta- 
tion with almost no effort. But none of us are so 
every day. There are hours with the strongest of us 
when we are weak. These are the times of peril for 
us, and our adversary is watching for them. In your 
weak hours keep a double guard, therefore, against 
temptation. Keep out of its way. Throw yourself 
with mighty faith on Him who was tempted in all 
points as we are, and knows therefore how to deliver 
us when we are tempted. In time of special weakness 
run to Christ for shelter. 

Ms 20. 

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. 

POD looks upon us as individuals. We come into 
this world one by one. We live in a sense alone 

146 



Mg 20. 

with our own personal responsibilities. We die one by 
one. As individuals, not as crowds, must we stand 
before God. Your destiny will not depend on any 
chance of the moment : you are fixing it yourself in 
your choices and acts, in your habits and life. Your 
own faith and obedience must weave the garment of 
beauty for your life. God gives the materials, but 
after that each one is the weaver of his own " wed- 
ding-garment." 

Mg 2\. 

DOING THINGS FOR CHRIST. 

\ATE often imagine that it was a great deal easier for 
our Lord's first disciples to do things for him 
than it is for us. They could see him and hear his 
voice and do errands really for him, and coming back 
hear his approval or his thanks ; but we cannot hear 
him telling us what to do, nor can we see his pleased 
look when we have done anything for him. So we 
find ourselves wishing he were here again, that we 
might get our duties right from his very lips. We 
sometimes ask how we can do things for him when he 
is not here. But we have only to remember his prom- 
ise: "I am with you all the days." He is here, 

147 



Ms 21* 

though unseen, just as really as he was with his first 
disciples. We can do things for him all the time. 
Every loving obedience is something done for Christ. 
Every kindness shown to another in his name and for 
his sake is shown to him. Every piece of common, 
routine task-work, if done though love for him, be- 
comes something done for Christ. So we can make 
all our dull life radiant as angel's ministry by doing 
all for Christ. 

Ms 22. 

god's unchanging love. 

UUMAN love may change. The friendship of last 
year has grown cold. The gentleness of yester- 
day has turned to severity. But it is never thus with 
God's love. It is eternal. Our experience of it may 
be variable, but there is no variableness in the love. 
Our lives may change ; our consciousness of his love may 
fade out ; but the love clings for ever ; the gentleness of 
God abides eternal. " For the mountains shall depart 
and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not 
depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my 
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on 
thee." 

148 



Ms 23. 

god's present help. 

/THERE is never a moment, nor any experience, in 
the life of a true Christian, from the heart of which 
a message may not instantly be sent up to God, and 
back to which help may not instantly come. God is 
not off in some remote heaven merely. He is not away 
at the top of the long steep life-ladder, looking down 
upon us in serene calm and watching us as we struggle 
upward in pain and tears. He is with each one of us 
on every part of the way. His promise of presence is 
an eternal present tense : " I am with thee." So 
"Thou, God, seest me" becomes to the believer a most 
cheering and inspiring assurance. We are never out 
of God's sight for a moment. His eye watches each 
one of us continually, and his heart is in his eye. He 
comes instantly to our help and deliverance when we 
are in any need or danger. 

Ms 24. 

THE GREATEST ATTRIBUTE. 

TPHE greatest attribute in God is not his power, 

though it is omnipotence, not his knowledge, 

though it is omniscience, not his glory, though it is 

burning majesty ; it is his love. He is greatest as he 

149 



3uig 24 

blesses and serves. The brightest hour in Christ's life 
was not the hour of his transfiguration, or of his mira- 
cle-working, or of his sublime teaching, but the hour 
when he hung in the darkness on his cross. Then it 
was that his love shone out in the most wondrous re- 
vealing. We need to remember for ourselves that the 
greatest thing in the world is love — that serving is the 
path to highest honor. 

M£ 25. 



IJ 1 VERY life will have its times of sore testing, its 
times of sharp trial, its experiences in which or- 
dinary strength and preparation will not avail. It is 
when we have Christ back of our own little strength, 
when we are abiding in Christ, when our faith links us 
to his everlasting fullness, that we have the reserve we 
need for any future. True religion binds the soul to 
God, so that from his divine fullness supply comes for 
every emergency. We cannot fail if God is back of 
us. Our lamps can never go out if they are fed from 
heaven's olive trees. But if we have no such reserve, 
our own feeble strength will soon be exhausted, and 
there will be no refilling of the emptied vessel. 

150 



Ms 26. 

SHRINKING FROM DUTY. 

\UBlEN we stand before any duty, whatever peril or 
cost it may involve, let us not hesitate to do it. 
You cannot turn away from duty save at the peril 
of your soul. Forget not the momentous word of 
Christ: "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; 
but whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find 
it." There are times when the best use we can make 
of our life is to give it up. Life that is saved by 
shrinking from duty is not worth saving. It has been 
stained, and has lost its glory in the saving. It is infi- 
nitely better to die in the way of duty than to live by 
cowardice or disloyalty to Christ or by any unfaith- 
fulness. 

Mg 27. 

AS A FLOWER SCATTERS FRAGRANCE. 

C TAY at Christ's feet till your heart overflows with 
love for all, even for people you have not liked be- 
fore. Then begin to think about them and to live for 
them. Begin to scatter happiness as a flower scatters 
fragrance, as a lamp scatters beams of light. Christ 
was always making people happy. Shall we not take 
the same aim for ours ? It is a wonderful power, too — 

151 



Ms 27. 

a power that we all have in a greater or smaller meas- 
ure — to put gladness and joy into others' hearts. No 
mission in life can be nobler than to live to be a hap- 
piness-maker. 

Mg 28. 

PRAYER AND ANSWER. 

T^RUE prayer is earnest, not tiring nor fainting. It 
takes every burden to God — the small and the 
large alike. It is submissive, referring all to the 
Father's will. Its answer may not come in the direct 
granting of the request we make, but may come instead 
in more grace and strength, enabling us to keep the 
burden and yet rejoice.. Lying at our Father's feet 
in the time of our strong cryings and tears, we learn 
obedience, and our sobbings end in praises, our strug- 
gles in acquiescence, our tears are dried and we rise 
victorious — not getting our own way, but glad and 
happy and peaceful in God's way. 

Mg 29. 

TAKING SHORT-CUTS. 

AXTE should never take short-cuts, even to things that 
we are sure will some day be ours. Life is full 

152 



Ms 29* 

of these opportunities to shorten the path to success, 
to achievement, to position. God's way ofttimes seems 
long and far around. But any other way, however 
short it seems, is longer. Though there may be no 
sin committed in taking the short-cuts, nothing dis- 
honorable done, nothing to stain the soul, still it is 
better to go only as God leads. His way is always in 
the end the shortest. 

Ms 30. 

WHAT WE TRY TO DO. 

n HEIST accepts what we try our best to do for him, 
what we truly want to do, even though no results 
come from our efforts. This ought to be a comfort to 
many of us, for we do not do, any of us, indeed, what 
it is in our hearts to do. Our hands are awkward and 
unskillful, and fail to work out the beauty that our 
mind dreams. We go out with high resolve and lov- 
ing thought to do some sweet service for our Lord, 
and come back with tears and sad regret over the fail- 
ure or the marring of what we meant to do. But 
Christ knows what our hearts planned and what we 
wanted to do, and that is what he counts and sets 
down on his books. 

153 



3ulg 31. 

BLESSING OP DAILY CROSSES. 

A TKUE Christian life never grows easy, never be- 
comes entirely agreeable to our natural tastes. 
Every day is, in a certain sense, a crucifixion, a nail- 
ing of self on the cross. But this very hardness is a 
means of grace. The cross lifts us upward. We 
grow under the burden of our daily duties and cares. 
So it comes that the things we would like to be freed 
from are the things we could least afford to lose. 
What we consider our disadvantages may really be our 
most indispensable advantages. We grow best under 
pressure, under the hard necessity of toil and care. 

August I, 

CHRISTIANITY A LIFE. 

TT were easier to get all the sunbeams out of grasses 
and flowers and plants in the bright summer days 
than to get the life of Christ out of the world. It has 
wrought itself into everything along these Christian 
centuries, not only into the individual lives of Christ's 
followers, but also into laws and systems and institu- 
tions, into thought and literature and music and art. 
Christianity is not a mere creed. There is that in it 

154 



August !♦ 

which can never be wrapped up in forms, in liturgies, 
in confessions. Nor is Christianity a mere code of 
ethics ; it is a life, a throbbing, pulsing, immortal life. 
It enters into men as the sunshine enters into the plant 
or the flowers. It becomes their very heart's blood, 
their breath, their spirit. It inspires their thought, 
their feeling, their words, their acts. 

August 2* 

THE HIDDEN LIFE. 

"\jlTE are all conscious of living in this world, even at 
our best, far below our best. We are conscious, 
too, of possibilities of character hidden within us unde- 
veloped, and of powers of helpfulness in our life which 
we have barely begun to exercise, but which might be 
drawn out into activity. We see hints and gleams, and 
we have glimpses now and then, of far more glorious 
life than we have yet reached. The highest attain- 
ments here are but the beginnings of sanctified life. 
The peace, joy, love, unselfishness, service, purity, holi- 
ness, reached in the ripest experiences of earthly saint- 
hood are only dim intimations of what we may become 
— ay, of what we shall become. Our life is hid, con- 
cealed, with Christ in God. 

155 



August 3* 

life's sensitiveness. 

VOU go through a day of varying experiences, and 
everything that touches your life — the words 
you hear, the pictures you see, the books you read, 
the companions you meet and with whom you asso- 
ciate, the friendship that warms your heart, — every- 
thing that touches you leaves its mark on your charac- 
ter. And it is not a mere passing transient impression 
that these things and these lives and experiences leave 
on your life ; it is permanent work that they do. Not 
the great stones in the massive building are so wrought 
into the fabric as these impressions are wrought into 
the character. Our lives are temples, and every one 
who touches us is a builder. So it is also with the 
influences we throw off on other lives. They make 
their record there, and it is ineffaceable. 



August 4* 

A CASKET OP SWEET THOUGHTS. 

TXfHEN we learn to look up to God out of our 

weakness and sorrow, and say " Abba, Father !" 

what a revelation does the name disclose! what a 

156 



August 4* 

treasure of precious love-thoughts does it unlock ! 
For one thing, there is love in this divine Fatherhood 
— love that never falters, that never wearies, that stops 
at no sacrifice. There is also watchfulness that never 
sleeps, that looks down with compassionate eye from 
above the silent stars and keeps vigil day and night. 
There is compassion also, that peers into the depths of 
all our want and woe. There is shelter too, for ever 
does our Father stand between us and danger. There 
is guidance, a divine Hand clasping ours and leading 
us along through every strange way. No casket of 
earth's jewels holds so rich a cluster as does this 
heavenly casket, this name Father, contain of the 
jewels of divine grace. 

August 5* 

THE MORAL POWER OP " YES." 

TT is important that we learn to say "Yes" when 
" Yes " is the true answer. To all invitations up- 
ward to truer, deeper, richer, nobler life we should in- 
stantly answer " Yes." All calls to duty, to holy serv- 
ice, to noble deeds, to heroic battle, we should meet 
with glad " Yes." While we instantly shut our hearts 
against all that is impure and unholy, all thoughts 

157 



August 5* 

that would tarnish or stain or blight, we should open 
them just as quickly to all thoughts that are pure and 
true and honest and just and lovely. One of the old 
Bible answers which we hear so often from the lips of 
saintly men, when called of God, is " Here am I." It 
meant readiness for instant, unquestioning obedience. 
We need to get the same answer into our heart's vo- 
cabulary, that when God calls we may always respond 
with our prompt, ringing " Here am I." 

August 6* 

SPIRITUAL POVERTY. 

AX^E are greedy after this world's things, and never 
can get enough of them ; but of the real things, 
the things that will last through eternity, we are satis- 
fied with very small portions. " What seek ye ?" asks 
the Master, his hands filled with precious blessings ; 
and we ask for some little thing, some trifle, when we 
might have glorious fullness of blessing. How very 
strange it must seem to the angels to see us poor mor- 
tals giving our life, our very soul, to get some paltry 
thing of earth that will perish to-morrow, and then 
not taking the precious spiritual boons that we might 
have for the mere asking ! 

158 



August 7* 

UNSEEN BRETHREN. 
YftTHILtE we pour our kindness in perpetual bene- 
dictions upon those whose lives touch ours in 
our daily walks, we must not forget that we have 
brethren whom we have never seen. Says the old 
proverb: "There are people who live beyond the 
hill." We must think of these in our planning for 
ourselves. We are in danger of living in a very 
small world, thinking of only a few people ; but 
wherever there is a true follower of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, there is one of our brothers. He may be in 
India or China or Africa or in some island of the sea ; 
still he is our brother, and we ought to have some 
kindly thought for him. 

August 8* 

GRIEF OFTTIMES AN EXCUSE. 
THHERE are sorrows that hang no crape on the door- 
bell, and wear no black, and bow no shutters, and 
drop no tears that men can see, and can get no sym- 
pathy save that of Christ and perhaps a closest human 
brother. If you knew the inner life of many of the 
people you work with and do business with and meet 
socially in the common days, you would be very gentle 
with them ; you would excuse their peculiarities, their 

159 



August 8* 

absent-mindedness, their seeming thoughtlessnesses at 
times. Grief makes life hard for very many people. 
It is a wonder they can be as genial and loving as they 
are, in view of the burdens that crush them. 

August 9. 

testing Christ's words. 
X 1 VERY word of Christ comes to us with the chal- 
lenge, " Put me to the test. Try me. Prove me." 
Eeligion is not a matter of theory, but a matter of life. 
We are to prove it by living it. Take every word 
which Christ speaks, and begin at once to obey it if it 
be a command, or trust it and lean on it if it be a 
promise. No matter if you do not understand it nor 
see why the command is good, yet do it. Let God lead 
you, and only be sure that you obey and trust him. 
You will not know any faster than you will do. Only 
keep on following Christ, and the way will open to you 
and become plain as you go on step by step. 

August l(X 

CHRIST IN SUNSHINE. 

"tXTE are in danger of using our religion only in our 
dark hours, when we are in some trouble. But 

160 



August 10. 

we need Christ just as much in our bright, prosperous, 
exalted hours as in the days of darkness, adversity and 
depression. His religion is just as much for our hours 
of joy as for our days of grief. There are just as many 
stars in the sky at noon as at midnight, although we 
cannot see them in the sun's glare. And there are just 
as many comforts and promises and divine encourage- 
ments and blessings above us when we are in our noons 
of human gladness and earthly success as when we are 
in pain and shadow. 

August XL 

ARE THERE LITTLE SINS ? 

AA^E talk about little sins, but when we remember 
that every sin is committed against the infinite 
God, and that all sins are eternal in their influences 
and consequences, the smallest grows into stupendous 
importance. Indeed, there is nothing little in moral 
life. How do we know what is small or what is great 
in God's eye or as measured by its results through 
future ages ? True faithfulness is not careless in little 
things. It is harder always to be faithful in small, 
obscure, unpraised things than in things that are bril- 
liant and conspicuous. More persons fail in doing the 
little things, the common prosaic things, of every-day 

11 161 



August 11* 

life than in doing the greater and more prominent 
things. Hence it is here that we need to keep double 
watch upon ourselves. All fraying out of character 
begins with one little thread left loose. 

August 12* 

imaging Christ's beauty. 

HO and speak of Christ to others ; tell them of his 
holiness, his purity, his mercy, his patience, his 
great love, his infinite gentleness ; speak of his benign 
beauty till your face glows and your eyes shine with 
the lustre of his radiancy as you see it in his face. 
But do not fail to show them in your own character, 
in your disposition, in your love, patience, gentleness, 
sympathy, unselfishness, ministry, purity, some gleams, 
some radiant hints, of the beauty of Christ. Let peo- 
ple see in you at least a dim reflection of the beauty 
you praise. 

August 13+ 

FORGIVING INJURIES. 

17 VEN those to whom we are the truest friends, and 

for whom we do the most, will sometimes treat us 

unjustly and do us sore injury. We cannot but feel 

162 



August 13. 

the pain of such wrongs, but if meekly borne they 
will be turned to good for us by that divine love 
which transmutes everything into blessing for the life 
of faith. It is only when we cherish resentment and 
hold grudge in our hearts that the injuries done to us 
by others really harm us. Forgiveness robs them of 
their power to hurt us. Let us forgive generously. 
Too much of our forgiveness is with reservation : " I 
forgive you, but this ends our friendship." The fuller 
our forgiveness, the richer blessing do we take from the 
injurious treatment. 

god's goodness in all. 

TT is not hard to believe in the divine goodness when all 
things are joyous. The hard thing is to believe in it 
just as firmly and quietly when all things seem against 
us. The goodness of God is just as surely and as rich- 
ly revealed in the dark things of providence as in the 
bright things. God comes to us in many forms ; but 
always his name is Love ; always is he our Father. 
We keep two lists, and write some things as " pros- 
perous " and some as " adverse." God writes " good- 
ness" over all. 

163 



G 



August 15* 

WHAT GRACE DOES NOT DO. 

KACE does not take trial out of human life. It 
does not make all the world feel kindly toward 
you. It does not hush the tongue of reproach and 
scorn. It does not quell the contentions of life. It 
does not soften human hardness nor destroy selfishness. 
It does not hush the sharp voices of criticism, fault- 
finding and frivolous talk. It does not command a 
truce to jealous rivalries and envyings, to personal 
abuse and silly strife. It does not say to the winds, 
" Blow not on my child." Christ makes no charmed 
circle about us where we shall never more feel the 
blast of the storm. But he gives a peace that will 
keep the heart calm and tranquil in the midst of the 
angriest strifes and storms. 

August 16* 

WORKING BY FAITH. 

X 1 AITH links a man to Christ, so that he is no more a 
mere common man, with only his own poor feeble 
strength, but is more than a man — a man whom Christ 
is using, back of whom Christ's omnipotent energy is 
working. We must yield ourselves altogether to God 
and let him use us. Then his power, his wisdom^ his 

164 



August 16 ♦ 

skill, his thoughts, his love, shall flow through our 
souls, our brains, our hearts and our fingers. That is 
working by faith. It is simply putting our life into 
God's hand to be used, as one uses a pen to write or a 
brush to paint or a chisel to carve the statue. 

August 17* 

RECEIVING CORRECTION PATIENTLY. 

X7EEY many people are glad to correct others, and 
think it very strange they will not take the cor- 
rection or criticism patiently, while if any one tries 
the same with them they quickly resent it. What is 
good for another sinner ought to be good for us too. 
Let us seek for grace to take correction from those 
who love us. If a friend tell us of a fault, let us not 
get angry, even if he does it awkwardly so as to give 
us pain. Let us thank him, and set about to cure the 
fault. Even from the lips of an enemy in anger we 
may yet get lessons it will do us good to learn. 

August 18. 

BLESSING OF CONFLICT. 

AX^E enter a world of antagonism and opposition the 
moment we resolve at Christ's feet to be Chris- 

165 



August \$. 

tians, to be true men and women, to obey God, to for- 
sake sin, to do our duty. There never comes an hour 
when we can live nobly without effort, without mak- 
ing resistance to wrong influences, without struggle 
against the power of temptation. It never gets easy 
to be a worthy and faithful Christian. Sometimes we 
are almost ready to give it all up and to cease our 
struggling ; but we should remember that the spiritual 
nobleness and beauty after which we are striving can 
become ours only through this very struggling. 

August 19* 

BLESSINGS OF DARKNESS. 

^IXTE shall learn in the end, if only our faith fail not, 
that the best treasures of life and character come 
out of the dark, painful hours. In days and nights of 
pain we learn endurance. In the struggles with doubt 
and fear we find at last bright blessed faith. In the 
darkness of sorrow we learn the song of joy. In weary 
suffering we get sweet pity for others. Meet every hard 
thing, every obstacle, every trial, every disappointment, 
every sorrow, with faith ; be more than conqueror over 
it through Him that loved you, and it will leave bless- 
ing, treasure, enrichment, in your life. 

166 



August 20. 

CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION. 

"THERE is a time for pleasantry and for humor. We 
are to talk about the bright, beautiful, joyful things 
around us. The Christian must not be sanctimonious. 
Religion suffers from nothing more than from cant. 
Our talk on business, on science, on pleasure, on what- 
Boever theme, should be fragrant with the perfumes of 
grace. An old proverb says : " The heart and the 
tongue are only a span apart." If a man's heart is 
touched by the fire of God, his lips will speak ever 
words of beauty, truth and gentle love on whatever 
theme he may speak. 

August 21. 

OUR PERSONAL CREED. 

LTOW many of us have taken our Bibles and put the 
doctrines of our creed to the proof? Our creeds 
might be shorter if we did this, yet if we only believed 
two or three great doctrines, and believed them after 
personal inquiry, and were able to tell why we believed 
them, it would be better than if we believed thirty-nine 
or forty or any number of doctrines merely because 
the Church teaches them. It is time we should begin 

167 



August 21. 

to think earnestly about these things. Every Chris- 
tian ought to be able to give an intelligent reason for 
the faith that is in him. Our personal creeds ought to 
grow out of our daily searching of the word and our 
daily living. 

^UflUSt 22. 

NO STRANGE MYSTERY THERE. 

HERE are depths in the love of God vast and 



T 



fathomless as the ocean, and we are only on the 
shore. Then there are strange things in God's provi- 
dential dealings with each one of us. Death will solve 
a thousand mysteries for us in a moment. We will see 
then the reason for every trial, every pain, every loss, 
every disappointment. There will not be a trace of 
mystery left hanging about any providence. Love 
will glow everywhere. Then we shall see clearly what 
now we know only by faith, that all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God. 

August 23. 

LOVING UNLOVELY PEOPLE. 

'THEEE are some people whom it is very easy to 
love. They are congenial to our tastes. They 

168 



August 23. 

have amiable qualities or charming manners, or they 
have befriended us, or they are our social companions. 
But there are others, good enough, yet not congenial, 
not amiable, not to our taste. They have unlovely and 
disagreeable traits. Faults mar the beauty of their 
character. Yet if we are Christians we should not 
fail to show brotherly love toward any. We must seek 
that charity that hides the multitude of sins and faults. 



August 24 

MISREPRESENTING CHRIST. 

TF we are sour, peevish, easily provoked, surly, resent- 
ful, jealous, envious, bad-tempered in any way, what 
sort of impression of Christ do we give to those who 
know nothing of him save what they learn from our 
lives? Surely if we love Christ truly we will not 
allow ourselves to continue to do him dishonor by liv- 
ing a life so unworthy of his dear name. Whatever 
we may do for Christ, in gifts to his cause or work in 
his service, if we fail to live out his life of sweet 
patience and forbearance, we fail of an essential part 
of our duty as Christians. 

169 



August 25* 

THE WELL IN THE HEART. 

A LL noble life must be an inspiration from within, a 
well of water springing up, the spontaneous out- 
flow of a full heart. We must seek to be filled with 
the divine Spirit. Then self will die. Then our life 
will breathe benedictions and drop blessings every- 
where. Our very look will be full of kindness. We 
shall radiate light wherever we move, chasing away 
the darkness of others' sorrow. Then, sharing our loaf 
with the hungry, our joy with the joyless, our strength 
with the fainting, Christ will give us more and more 
of comfort, joy, strength and helpful power, and at last 
will share with us his own crown and glory. For the 
well in the heart springs up into everlasting life. 

August 26* 

THE BLESSING OP TRUST. 

VOTJ cannot take into the innermost circle of your 
own heart's friends one who does not fully trust you. 
Doubt builds walls between hearts. Distrust hinders 
close fellowship. The same is true in friendship with 
Jesus. There must be perfect trust if we would get near 
to him. He knoweth them that trust in him. He feels 
the touch of every hand that rests in faith upon his 

170 



August 26. 

arm. He feels the gentle pressure of every head that 
is laid upon his bosom. He hears every sweet breath- 
ing of confidence that goes up from our lips. Oh for 
that trust that, in every experience of sorrow and joy, 
remains calm and unbroken ! 

August 27. 

THE ONE PERFECT LIFE. 

WHEEE do we find the truest, noblest life ? There 
is no smallest fragment of our humanity that re- 
tains the absolute perfection and beauty that were in 
human life as it came first from the Creator's hand. 
If we would see life in its wholeness, un marred, unde- 
based, the highest, purest, truest life, we must look in- 
side heaven. We are to become like Christ. We 
should never therefore lose sight of him. Keeping 
the ideal always before our eyes will, unconsciously 
yet powerfully, draw us toward itself. 

August 28. 

NOT IN THE EASY PATHS. 

'IX/'E are strongly tempted, in these luxurious days, 
to seek out the easy ways in life. Naturally, we 
171 



QLUQWit 28. 

are not fond of bearing heavy burdens, of performing 
hard tasks, of making self-denials. We prefer to be 
indolent. Not many people die of overwork ; more 
die of ennui. Souls are withered too by self-indulg- 
ence. It is a false idea that God has sown his bless- 
ings thickest amid the flowers of earth's gardens ; nay, 
they lie thickest on the bare fields of hardship and 
toil. In shrinking from self-denials called for in the 
path of duty we are missing the best things God has 
to give us. 

August 29. 

USELESSNBSS OP WORRY. 

"IXTOKRYING about your hard w T ork does not make 
the work any easier, and it only makes you less 
strong and courageous for doing it. Worrying about 
some misfortune which you cannot help makes the mis- 
fortune no less and only renders its endurance harder. 
Thus far even common sense goes. Then religion goes 
farther, and assures us that even the hard things, the 
obstacles and the hindrances, become blessings if we 
meet them in faith, stepping-stones upward, disciplinary 
experiences in which we may grow ever into nobler, 
stronger life. 

172 



August 30. 

TRUST BETTER THAN QUESTIONS. 

AX/E ought not to ask questions about our Father's 
ways — why he does this, why he does that. Surely 
it is better to trust our Father than to weary our brain 
with efforts to solve the mysteries and to find the rea- 
sons. Questions indicate fear or doubt ; at least per- 
fect trust asks no questions, does not seek to under- 
stand. It says, " Even so, Father, for so it seemeth 
good in thy sight," and rests there in perfect peace. 
Of course we cannot expect always to understand 
God's ways — he would not be God if we could ; but 
we know that love is the key to them all, and that 
some time all shall be made clear even to us. 

August 31* 

THE GREATEST WORK. 

^lATE cultivate benevolence, charity, philanthropy, 
patriotism. We feed the hungry, and visit the 
sick, and minister to the poor, and provide for the 
widow and the orphan, and practice generosity. We 
emphasize personal character and service. We try to 
do good to men's bodies. We educate their minds. 
We seek their best interests in all physical and intel- 
lectual ways. All this is well so far as it goes ; but 

173 



August 31* 

we have not yet reached the greatest of all earthly 
things, the most important of all the work which a 
Christian can do. Are we striving to win souls ? Are 
we seeking the lost to bring them to Christ ? Saving 
souls is earth's greatest work. 

life's great lessons. 

^IXTE all fail in the life-lessons which our great 
Teacher sets for us. The hardest school-tasks 
are easily mastered in comparison with the lessons of 
patience, sweet temper, forgiveness, unselfishness, 
humility, purity, contentment. Even at best we can 
learn these lessons but slowly. And though but little 
seems to come from our yearnings and strugglings 
after Christ-likeness, yet God honors the yearning and 
the striving ; and while we sit in the shadows of weari- 
ness, disheartened with our failures, he carries on the 
work within us, and with his own hands produces the 
divine beauty in our souls. 

September 2* 

DEVOTION AND SERVICE. 

UE who neglects love's duties of service, in Christ's 
name, to those who need the ministry of love, can- 
174 



September 2* 

not long enjoy the raptures of worship within the 
sanctuary. Devotion is not the end of Christian 
life; we wait upon God that we may renew our 
strength for noble service. In our eagerness to press 
within the temple to look upon the face of God we 
must not pass unheeding by the suffering ones who lie 
with appealing glance and voice outside the temple- 
gate. Visions of God which lead to no active service 
will soon die out. 

September 3* 

WHY ARE WE SO WEAK? 

J7 VERY Christian ought to be an apostle of Christ, 
and ought to leave a shining record of blessed 
ministry all along his path. But how is it with many 
of us ? Is there always power in our lives ? Are we 
always victorious in temptation? Does life flow out 
from our lives in perpetual benedictions to others 
whom we touch or on whom our shadow rests ? Is it 
not true of us that we continually fail to be, in the 
largest and best sense, blessings to others ? Do we not 
come to Christ at the close of many of our days to 
lament our failure and to ask him why we could not 
do the things we ought to do ? Do we not all know 
what the answer is ? — " Because of your little faith." 

175 



<geptemfoer 4* 

THE SIN OF THOUGHTLESSNESS. 

'UU r E try to excuse rude things or careless things we 
do that hurt others by saying, " I didn't mean 
any unkindness." Certainly we did not : it was not in 
our heart to be rude or brusque or to give pain in any 
way. It was only "want of thought." Yes, but 
" want of thought " is " want of heart " — want of a 
gentle heart, for a gentle heart should always be 
thoughtful; love should never be thoughtless. We 
have no right to forget our relations to others and the 
duties of love we owe to them. Nothing can ever ex- 
cuse a Christian for not being kindly, gentle, thought- 
ful, considerate. 

September 5* 

god's plan life's ideal. 

T)EOPLE sometimes sentimentalize over the con- 
stant changes and thwartings of plans and the dis- 
appointments of life. They grow morbid over them 
and sigh, " Vanity of vanities !" Or they ask, " Why 
is the Lord dealing so sorely with me ?" The success 
or non-success of our earthly plans is of very little 
consequence in comparison with the building up of 
Christ-likeness in our souls. Do not be surprised if 

176 



September 5* 

you fail to have your own way at many a point. God 
would teach you that true success lies in the doing of 
his will, not your own, and the realizing of his plan 
for your life, not your plan. 

September 6* 

WHAT WE OWE TO FRIENDSHIP. 

"IXTE do not know how much we owe to our true and 
pure friends, how much they add to our joy, what 
they do toward the formation and the adornment and 
enrichment of our character. We know not what 
touches, delicate and beautiful, on the canvas of our 
soul there will be for ever which the fingers of a friend 
have left there. There will be a silver thread in every 
life-web when finished, woven into the fabric by the 
pure friendship of many days. How important that 
only the true, the worthy, those with clean hands and 
good lives, be taken as friends, for an evil companion- 
ship will put stained and soiled threads into the web. 

September 7* 

god's love changeless. 

1WTOST of us have times when we can say, " Oh, I 
know that God loves me now," but the feeling 
12 177 



is transient, and soon passes away. To-morrow we are 
doubting and fearing as before, and the joy has gone 
out of our heart. Does God's love, then, change? 
Did he love me yesterday, and does he not love me 
to-day ? Has the divine heart unclasped its hold upon 
me ? No ; the love of God is changeless and eternal. 
Heaven and earth may pass away, but the kindness of 
the Lord shall never depart from any of his children. 
Let us try to grasp this truth. Then, come what may, 
joy or sorrow, prosperity or adversity, we shall know 
always that the love of God abides unchanging — that 
we are held in its clasp with a hold that never can be 
torn loose. 

September 8* 

BROTHERLY LOVE. 

'THEEE is no true love to Christ which does not also 
kindle in our hearts a corresponding love to men. 
He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen can- 
not love God whom he hath not seen. Brotherly love 
is the very proof and badge of Christian discipleship. 
This love is not in name merely, but is real. It is a 
love that protects and helps ; a love that keeps sacred 
watch over the good name of a brother, and by a 

178 



strong arm averts the descending blow; a love that 
seeks every opportunity to bless and cheer and com- 
fort ; a love that serves and forgets self in loyal devo- 
tion even to death for a brother. In a word, it is " as 
I have loved you ;" and how does Christ love us ? To 
answer this is to tell how he would have us love the 
brethren. We can thus read the meaning of the les- 
son in the blessed life of our Lord. 

BESETTING SINS. 

'THE best things of life come to us wrapped up in 
difficulties, obstacles, seeming hindrances and oppo- 
sitions, and unless we meet them heroically and vic- 
toriously we shall miss God's richest and best gifts and 
treasures. It is hard, for example, to have a besetting 
sin, one specially weak point, one temptation that 
comes perpetually up to us, stalking like a Goliath 
before us. Some of us know what it is to have sins 
which we do not overcome, which we do not even 
wrestle with, but which we allow to overcome us again 
and again. But do we not know that these very be- 
setting sins are enemies that can be made friends to 
help us heavenward? 

179 



September 10. 

SILENT WORK. 

A LL the greatest work of this world goes on noise- 
lessly. Only little workers clatter. God, both in 
nature and in grace, works silently. The angels go 
about noiselessly on their blessed ministries. So the 
best work any of us do is what we do without noise. 
Our words give forth sound, but it is not the sounds 
that do good, that brighten people's sad faces, that 
change tears to laughter, that stimulate hope, that put 
courage into fainting hearts ; it is not the noise of our 
words, but the thoughts which the words carry. The 
best part of any good man's life is his influence- — that 
strange, impalpable something which goes out ever- 
more from his character like fragrance from a flower, 
like light from a star, and influence works always in 
silence, without words. 

September IX. 

TAKING THOUGHT. 

HPHEKE is one thing for which we are to take 
thought — not anxious, but very deep and earnest 
thought. We are to take thought about our duty, 
about our work, about doing God's will and filling our 
place in God's world, and taking our part in advan- 

180 



September \\+ 

cing the heavenly kingdom. Too many people worry 
far more about their food and raiment, lest they shall 
be left to want, than they do about doing their whole 
duty. That is, they- are more anxious about God's 
part in their lives than about their own part. They 
fear that God may not take care of them, but they do 
not seem to have any fear that they themselves may 
fail in duty or in fidelity to him. 

&eptemfar 12. 

THE BEAUTIFUL VISION. 

A S the beauty of Christ's life and character glows 
before us in the light of the Gospels we should say, 
" That is what I am to be some day. I am yet very 
far from it, but I am to reach it. That is my destiny." 
Such a hope cherished in the heart has a wondrous 
uplifting power. Since we are to be some day like 
Christ, we should grow every day in grace : we should 
be getting ever a little more like Christ in feeling, in 
temper, in disposition, in affection ; our aim should be 
to bring every thought and emotion and desire into 
sweet subjection to Christ. We should not only cher- 
ish the blessed vision, but should seek daily to grow 
into its divine beauty. 

181 



September 13* 

our father's house. 

^ATE are in the Father's house in this world, though 
not in the best room of it, because sin has marred 
everything here. Still, we are in the Father's house. 
His care is over us continually. His love pours its 
brightness all about us. His hand provides for our 
wants. Let us not think meanly of earth, for it is 
part of our Father's house. How near it brings 
heaven to us to think of it as but another room in 
the same house in which we were born and in which 
we have lived all our years ! The life there is not a 
new life, but is simply the life we begin here continued 
there, with sin taken out and imperfection and all pain 
and suffering left for ever behind. 

September 14 

SAYING GOOD-BYES. 

C INCE any most hurried good-bye may be for years 
or may be for ever, should we not always part from 
our friends tenderly, kindly, lovingly? We should 
never separate in any angry mood, with bitterness in 
our hearts, with unforgiveness or misunderstanding we 
may never again have an opportunity to set right. We 
should never say good-bye carelessly or coldly, but with 

182 



^eptemfeer 14* 

thoughtful love. We should strive to make our every 
briefest good-bye sweet and kindly enough for a last 
good-bye should it prove to be the last, as it may be. 

geptemfar 15* 

RELIGION FOR ALL DAYS. 

TNTENSE aspirations for holiness sometimes seem to 
unfit people for living in this world. Christ never 
meant it to be so, however, and such religion is want- 
ing somewhere. You need a religion, not that will 
lift you up out of the week-day world into a seventh 
heaven of rapture, making you forget your duties to 
those about you, but a religion that will bring God 
down to walk with you in all the hard paths of toil 
and service, making even drudgery divine, and prosaic 
and commonplace toil a joy. That is what Christ 
wants to be to us. 

September 16* 

god's thought for us. 

n OD has a plan for our life, for each individual life. 

There is something that he made us for ; he has a 

thought in his mind for us, something he wants us to 

183 



September 16* 

be and to do. Now we can never be what God wants 
us to be except by doing his will day by day. Dis- 
obedience or insubmission at any point will mar the 
perfectness of his plan for us. We know that what- 
ever he wills for us is for us the highest possible good. 
God's will for us is always blessing. It will lead us at 
every step in the nearest way home. It will fashion 
in us each day a little more fully the image of 
Christ. 



September 17* 

THE SAFEST PLACE. 

T^HE safest place in all this world is ever the place 
of duty. God's wings are over it. God's peace 
guards it. It is said that at the centre of the cyclone 
there is a spot where there is almost perfect calm. A 
leaf there is scarcely stirred, and a baby would lie 
there unharmed. So at the centre of every great peril 
in life is a spot of holy calm where even the feeblest 
would not be harmed. It is the place of duty, of obe- 
dience, of the doing of God's will. He who stays there 
amid peril and trial is perfectly safe. No storm smites 
him. No plague comes nigh his dwelling. The way 
of duty is always a place of absolute safety. But he 

184 



September 17* 

who departs from this charmed centre soon finds him- 
self caught in the wild swirl and in peril. None of 
sin's ways are safe. 

September 18. 

DYING GRACE. 

TWTANY people worry because they do not seem to 
have " dying grace." They still fear death and 
shrink from it. But God has never promised dying 
grace when one's duty is to live. Grace for duty, for 
toil, for love, for honesty, for earnest service in every 
good cause, for brave struggle, for unselfish ministry, 
for holy influence ; grace for noble and beautiful liv- 
ing, and for loyal devotion to Christ while the heart's 
pulses are full and while God wants us still in this 
world — but not yet grace for dying since death is far 
away. Then grace for dying, when the life's work is 
done, its duty finished and the call comes to leave this 
world and go home. And will not that be soon enough 
for dying grace to be bestowed ? 

September 19* 

THE TOUCH OP CHRIST. 
MO one can read the Gospel story without being im- 
pressed with the marvelous power of Christ's 

185 



September 19* 

touch. Wherever it was felt blessing came. We 
find ourselves sometimes mourning the loss of this 
touch, and wishing that we could feel it and get its 
benediction. But really we have not lost it. Christ 
has indeed passed out of our sight into the heavens, 
but his hand is stretched out still. It is laid just as of 
old upon sufferers, and has lost none of its power to 
comfort, to heal, to open blind eyes. Christ lays his 
hand upon our heads every time we bow at his feet in 
prayer. When we are in trouble he comes and comforts 
us with his warm touch of sympathy. When we are 
sick or in pain he is by our bed, and his hand is laid 
on our fevered brow to give rest and peace. 

September 20. 

SERVING CHRIST FOR HIMSELF. 

AX^E are ready for usefulness just in the measure in 
which we have learned the lesson of self-forget- 
fulness. Self stands in the way of many glorious pos- 
sibilities of good. Men drag their own personality 
into the cause they are serving. They stickle for 
honor and place, and demand recognition, appre- 
ciation and reward. Appreciation and gratitude are 
very sweet. Who does not love to receive words of 
commendation ? But if such words do not come — if, 

186 



instead, wrong and injustice come — our zeal for Christ 
should be no less intense. Let us so sink ourselves in 
the cause of Christ that our loyalty, devotion and 
fidelity shall in no way be affected either by honor or 
neglect, by praise or blame. 

TO MAKE MEN BETTER. 
r\UR mission as Christians in this world is to do good 
to the worst people, to comfort, to help, to bless, to 
save. We are debtors to all men. We owe to every 
one we meet some benediction. We have an errand to 
every one. Where we can see no beauty, we are to seek 
to put the beauty of holiness. Where we find only en- 
mity and rage and wrong, we are to seek by patient 
love to overcome the evil with good. So, always for- 
getting ourselves and our rights, we are to strive to 
save others for heaven. If we go among men with 
this motive in our hearts, we shall have great joy in 
doing good even to the lowliest. 

<Septem6er 22. 

PEACE BEFORE MINISTRY. 

"XXTE are in no condition for good work of any kind 
when we are fretted and anxious in our minds. 

187 



September 22* 

It is only when the peace of God is in our heart that 
we are ready for true and helpful ministry. A fever- 
ish heart makes a worried face, and a worried face casts 
shadows wherever the person goes. A troubled spirit 
mars the temper and the disposition. It makes the 
whole life less beautiful. It unfits one for giving cheer 
and inspiration, for touching other lives with good and 
helpful impulses. Peace must come before ministry. 
It was when Jesus had touched the sufferer's hand and 
the fever had left her that she arose and ministered 
unto her friends. 

&ejjtemtor 23* 

BEYOND PAIN'S VALLEY. 

TWTANY of the richest possibilities of prayer lie be- 
yond valleys of pain and sorrow. The best things 
of life cannot be gotten save at sore cost. When we 
pray for more holiness we do not know what we are 
asking for ; at least we do not know the price we must 
pay to get that which we ask. Our "nearer, my God, 
to thee," must be conditioned by, and often can come 
only through, " e'en though it be a cross that raiseth 
me." Not only are the spiritual things the best things, 
but many times the spiritual things can be grasped 

188 



September 23. 

only by letting go and losing out of our hands the 
earthly things we would love to keep. God loves us 
too much to answer prayers for comfort and relief, 
even when we make them, if he can do it only at 
spiritual loss to us. He would rather let it be hard for 
us to live, if there is blessing in the hardness, than 
make it easy for us at the cost of the blessing. 

September 24* 

god's dark room. 
TPHE noblest, richest, purest and most fruitful lives 
in this world have always been lives of sufferers. 
There are elements of loveliness in the depths of every 
human soul which the fires of pain alone can bring out. 
The photographer carries his picture into a darkened 
room to develop it. God often takes his children into 
the chamber of pain and draws the curtains while he 
brings out the features of his own image, which before 
had been there in but dim and shadowy outlines. 

September 25. 

THE HUMAN NOT ENOUGH. 

C OMETIMES we are in danger of putting our trust 

in our human friends, rather than in the divine 

Friend. God comes to us still in human forms. He 

189 



September 25. 

reveals his sympathy and love through human hearts. 
He speaks to us through human lips. He guides us 
by human hands. But if the human be all we get, if 
we do not learn to cling to God and lean upon the 
divine arm beneath the human arm, and look to God 
for the blessings we want, dark for us will be the hour 
when the human falls away and we are left alone in 
the darkness. Wherever, in whatever form and by 
whomsoever you are led first to know God, be sure that 
it is God you know and trust. 

September 26. 

MISINTERPRETATION. 

F IFE is full of misinterpretations. Many of us have 
wrong opinions of others. We think they do not 
care for us when they really do. We imagine they 
are angry at us when there is not a shade of unkind 
feeling in their heart. We misinterpret their acts. 
Many a time things that offend us, if we but under- 
stood the motive that prompted them and the true love 
that is in them, would appear really beautiful in our 
eyes. We ought to guard continually against these 
misinterpretations. They do wrong to others. They 
rob our own hearts of peace. "Love thinketh no 
evil." Let us be sure always that we see an act in 
its proper light. 

190 



&eptemfor 27* 

LITTLE WHITE LIES. 

DEOPLE talk about " white lies " — little deceptions, 
concealments, false seemings, subterfuges — as if 
they were not particularly wrong. But he who would 
be true must be true through and through, in the in- 
nermost depths of his being and in the smallest affairs 
as well as the largest. He must simply be true. Let 
your soul of truth be as pure and unstained as the 
snowflakes when they fall from the cloud. There 
really are no " white lies ;" all lies are black. False- 
hood is of the night, no matter whether it be merely a 
look or a silence that deceives, or whether it be an ut- 
tered untruth. Let us learn to be true for God's eye. 

<Septem&er 28. 

SUCH AS WE HAVE. 

1XTE can do a great deal of the wisest, truest good 
among men without giving money. A strong 
hand reached out to help a fallen one rise again is bet- 
ter than money. New hope and fresh courage put 
into a discouraged heart are better than money. True 
comfort, enabling one in sorrow to pass through it sus- 
tained and victorious, is better than money. Let no 
one say he cannot do anything for others unless he has 

191 



$ejjtemfar 28* 

money to give. Use what you have. Heart-coins, 
life-coins, are better than coins from the mint. The 
things we do for men's souls are far more to them than 
the things we do merely for their bodies. Besides, all 
God asks us to give to others is of such as we have. 

<&eptemfor 29. 

GOD GUIDING OUR STEPS. 

"ARDER, my steps " is a prayer which should ever 
be on our lips. We should get our orders from 
God, not once in our life only, when we first give our- 
selves to him ; not at the opening of each day only 
as we go forth to the day's task ; not merely at the be- 
ginning of each new piece of work or of each fresh 
task, — but every moment, for each step. That is what 
walking with God means. We may make this so real 
that we shall look up into God's face continually, ask- 
ing, " What next, dear Lord ? What shall I do now ? 
Which course shall I take to-day ? How shall I do this 
duty ?" If we can but have God's guidance and help 
for the little short steps, we need not fear for the long 
miles, the great stretches of road. If each step is 
of his ordering, the long miles will be paths of his 
choosing. 

192 



September 30. 

EMPTY HANDS. 

T^ULL hands at the end of a life do not always tell 
of true success. Earthly failure is ofttimes higher 
success in God's eyes than what men regard as success. 
Scars of wounds gotten in conflict and strife with sin 
are more splendid marks of honor, when the hands 
are held up before God, than diamonds and gold and 
crowns gained by yielding in life's conflicts. Strive to 
get your hands filled with the invisible things of God's 
heavenly kingdom. Fight the battles of life heroically, 
and never mind the scars. Better have wounded and 
empty hands that are clean than hands that are full 
and yet are stained with sin. 



©cto&er 1. 

MIXING WORK WITH BRAINS. 

TT is a good thing to think. The more thought we 
put into our work the better it will be done. Work 
of all kinds becomes exalted, ennobled, refined, and 
produces good, lasting effects just in proportion as men 
put thought into it. All worthy, noble, useful, beauti- 
ful living must have its dark quarries of purposing, 
thinking, planning, shaping, polishing, back of its be- 

193 



October X. 

ing and doing. Look well to the quarries, and you 
need not give much thought to the rising of the build- 
ing. Prepare no stained blocks in your heart quarries. 
Train yourself to think only pure thoughts — white, 
clean thoughts. 

(BttoUx 2* 

MAKING PERFECT WORK. 

"TPKIFLES make perfection," replied the artist to 
one who asked him why he spent so much time 
in giving the little finishing-touches to his statue. 
There can be no perfection in any kind of workman- 
ship unless attention be paid to the minutest details, 
the merest trifles of construction or finishing. One 
smallest flaw or incompleteness left in the work, in 
any part of it, leaves a blemish on the finished en- 
deavor. Life is a mosaic, and each smallest stone 
must be polished and set with greatest care or the 
piece will not at last be perfect. One whose daily life 
is careless is always weak in character. But one who 
habitually walks in right paths, no matter how small 
and apparently trifling the things may be, grows strong 
and noble. Trifles make perfection. 

194 



October 3. 

GROWING THROUGH STRUGGLE. 

HPHE nominal Christian life that costs nothing is not 
worthy of the name. There must be self-restraint, 
discipline, severe schooling. There must be struggle, 
the agonizing effort. If you are to reach the goal and 
win the prize, you must put every energy of your life 
into the race. There must be sacrifice of indolence 
and self-will and personal ease. Too much pampering 
spoils many an earnest Christian. Every noble life is 
a struggle from beginning to end. Only those who 
resist and fight and overcome are successful in life. 
This is true in every sphere — in business, in study, in 
professional life and in spiritual life. Are we resist- 
ing sin, overcoming temptation, living victoriously in 
trial ? If not, we are not living worthily. 

(©cto&er 4* 

APPRECIATION TOO LATE. 

AA^E ought not to need night to teach us the glories 
of the day. We ought not to have to wait for 
sorrow before we can appreciate the sweetness of joy. 
Yet is it not often true that we learn the value of our 
blessings but by their loss ? Many a time an empty 
chair is the first full revealer of the worth and faith- 

195 



(BctQitx 4* 

fulness of a precious human friendship. Would it not 
be well if we were to seek to appreciate our good things 
while we have them ? We would then have the joy 
itself, and not merely the dull pain of regret as we look 
back at blessings vanished. Besides, we would do more 
for our friends while they are with us if we appreciated 
their worth. Too many of us never understand what 
we owe to our dear ones until there remains no further 
opportunity of paying love's debt. 

©cto&er 5. 

THE DIVINE GUIDANCE. 

1VTO ancient pillar ever made the way more plain to 
those who watched it for guidance than does God's 
providence make the path of duty in common days 
for those who truly acknowledge God and desire his 
guidance. It is not because we cannot know God's 
way that we do not see it, but because we want instead 
to take our own way. There is no use in our looking 
into our Lord's face and asking, " What now, dear 
Master ?" if we do not mean to take the path he marks 
out. We must have the spirit of obedience if we are 
to receive the divine direction. "Not my will, but 
thine," must be the prayer of our heart, cost what it 
may to surrender our own and take God's. 

196 



THE DIVINENESS OF SERVICE. 

VOTJ believe that the life of Jesus Christ was the 
noblest life ever lived in this world. No king of 
earth ever attained such splendid, such real, royalty as 
did he. No human hero on battle-field ever did deeds 
of such inherent greatness as those wrought by the 
hands of the Carpenter of Nazareth. And what was 
the ruling spirit of his life? Was it not service? 
u Not to be ministered unto, but to minister," was the 
motto of all his beautiful years. He lived wholly for 
others. He never had one thought for himself, never 
did the smallest act for himself. At last he emptied 
out his very blood in the greatest of all his acts of 
service. Shall we not learn from our Lord's example 
that the truest life in this world is one of self-forgetting 
love ? Selfishness anywhere mars and spoils the beauty 
of the rarest deed. We must get the spirit of service, 
and then our lives shall be Christ-like. 

©ctofar %* 

GETTING SORROW'S BLESSING. 

HTO all, in some form or other, suffering will some time 

come ; but if it is borne in the true way, it will 

bring rich blessings. It will produce in us, even in 

197 



©ctotrer 7* 

this world, the fruits of righteousness. It will make 
us greater blessings to others, since the things we learn 
in pain we can teach in joy and song. Are you in sor- 
row ? Do not fail to get the blessing from it that it 
has certainly brought to you from God. It is only 
when we do the right thing in our troubles that they 
do us good. Many people let their cares and worries 
into their hearts, and when they do this their lives are 
spoiled and harmed, and not blessed, by them. It is 
only when we keep God's peace within us in sorrow 
that we get the benediction. 

October 8* 

OTHER PEOPLE'S CONVENIENCE. 

"MITE ought to think of other people's convenience 
more than some of us do. The home is the place 
where this thoughtfulness ought to begin and be culti- 
vated. One who comes late to breakfast admits that 
he is guilty of an amiable self-indulgence, but forgets 
that he has marred the harmonious flow of the house- 
hold life and caused confusion and extra work. The 
other day an important committee of fifteen was kept 
waiting for ten minutes for one tardy member, who 
came sauntering in at last without even an apology for 

198 



©ctofar 8* 

having caused fourteen men a loss of time that to them 
was very valuable, besides having put a sore strain on 
their patience and good nature. Common life is full 
of just such thoughtlessnesses which cause untold per- 
sonal inconvenience and ofttimes produce irritation 
and hurt the hearts of friends. We ought to train 
ourselves in all our life to think also of other people. 

©cto&er 9. 

RELIGION IN THE COMMON DAYS. 

ANE of the most harmful practical errors of common 
Christian living is the cutting of life into two sec- 
tions, a religious and a secular section. We acknowl- 
edge God in the religious part. We fence off days 
and little spaces of time in each day which we profess 
to give to worship, devotion. But the danger is that 
we confine our acknowledging of God to these set 
times and seasons, while we shut him out of our real 
life. That is not true religion which prays well, and 
soars away into celestial raptures and holy dreams, 
while it has no effect on one's daily common life down 
here in the paths of toil and duty. We should have 
our visions, but we must bring them down into our 
earthly experience and make them real there. 

199 



©ctober 10* 

SERVING CHRIST IN HIS PEOPLE. 

^ATHEN we lay our lives at Christ's feet in consecra- 
tion and tell him that we want to serve him with 
them, he gives them back to us again and bids us use 
them in serving his people, our fellow-men. In the 
humblest and the lowliest of those who bear Christ's 
image Christ himself comes to us. We do not know 
when he stands before us in a lowly one who needs our 
sympathy or our help. It would be a sad thing if we 
turned him away unfed from our doors some day or 
neglected to visit him in his sickness. Let us not say 
we love Christ if we are not ready to serve those whom 
he sends to us to be served. 

©cto&er 11* 

SOLITARINESS OP LIFE. 

AX^E talk about companionships in life, and they cer- 
tainly are very sweet. There is immeasurable 
helpfulness in strong, true friendships. Still, it is true 
that, however many, faithful and sympathetic our 
friends may be, we must enter and pass through all 
life's crises alone. Every one of us lives really a soli- 
tary life. We do not fight in companies and battal- 
ions and regiments, but as individuals. Each one 

200 



(Bctoiex XX. 

must live his own life. " Every one must bear his 
own burden." 

" Why should we faint and fear to live alone, 

Since all alone (so Heaven has willed) we die ? 
Not even the tenderest heart, and next our own, 
Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh." 

©cto&er X2. 

THE EFFECTS OF WORDS. 
'THERE are words spoken quietly and coldly which 
break like the lightning-flash, bearing on their 
blighting wings sad desolation which years cannot re- 
pair. On the other hand, there are simple words 
which, treasured in memory, hang like bright stars of 
joy and cheer in dark nights of sorrow and trial. 
Keep ever speaking true words, kindly, loving words, 
the words of Christ, wherever you go, and you will 
some day find them again in benedictions in the hearts 
of those who have heard them. 

©ctofar 13* 

THE PATH OF GLORY. 
'THE path of glory for a life lies not far away among 
the cold mountains of earthly honor, nor yet in 
201 



©rto&er 13* 

any paths of fame where worldly ambition climbs, but 
close beside us, in the lowly ways of Christ-like minis- 
try. He who stoops to serve the poor and the suffer- 
ing in Christ's name will find at length that he has 
served Christ himself. Jesus lives in this world in his 
people, in every one of them, in the least of them — 
the poorest, the obscurest, the most downtrodden and 
despised. He calls them all "my brethren." The 
smallest kindness done to one of them he accepts as 
though done to himself in person. 

October 14- 

PROMISES IN RESERVE. 

LIE who has not in the sunny days made the divine 
promises his own has no comforts to sustain him 
when trouble comes. But he who has pondered the 
Scriptures, and laid up in memory the precious truths 
and assurances, when called to pass through affliction 
has light in his dwelling. Words of promise in which 
he had never before seen any special comfort shine out 
now like stars when the sun has gone down ; or, like 
lamps above his head, unnoted before, they pour their 
soft beams upon his soul. This is a provision all of 
us should make in youth and health and happiness for 
the dark days that will surely come. 

202 



©rtofar 15* 

LIFE A STEWARDSHIP. 

TXTE are not all apostles in the sense that St. Paul 
was, but to every one of us Christians Christ has 
given a solemn and sacred trust in our own salvation. 
We are to be true to him in a world of sin and temp- 
tation. We are to be faithful to duty wherever we 
stand. We each have a mission which we must strive 
to fulfill. Are we keeping the faith, true to every 
sacred trust which God has placed in our hands ? Are 
we taking care of the part of the vineyard assigned to 
us and rendering of the fruits to him who has com- 
mitted it to our care ? Not to fulfill our mission is 
soon to be left without a mission, dropped out, set 
aside, while others do our work and receive the 
honor and reward which would have been ours. 

©ctofar 16. 

WHAT GOD CROWNS. 

HPHE " crown of righteousness " is not given for much 
service or for great sacrifices, but for Christ-like 
character. The crown is in reality the efflorescence of 
the life itself, its bursting into glory and beauty, and 
is not something else, however brilliant, prepared and 

203 



(©ctofor 16* 

brought and set upon the head. The crown of right- 
eousness is righteousness in character, blossoming into 
heavenly radiance under the smile of God. Let us not 
forget that tireless activity is not enough to win this 
crown ; that heroic struggle is not enough. We must 
be holy, sanctified in our moral nature, righteous in 
life and character. It is not what we do that is 
crowned, but what we are. 

©ctober 17* 

THE WISDOM THAT WINS. 

TT is not worldly wisdom that is required to win souls 
— great learning, knowledge of science and philoso- 
phy. It is spiritual wisdom that is needed — the wisdom 
that comes down from God, the wisdom of faith, of 
love, of prayer, of humility. It is the wisdom Christ 
gave his disciples before he sent them out. Soul-win- 
ning is earth's holiest work. He who adds the least 
touch of beauty to a sacred life does more than he who 
paints a masterpiece ; but he who brings a lost soul to 
the Saviour, who seeks and finds a wandering sheep 
and bears it back to the fold, does the noblest, greatest 
work possible on this earth. 

204 



A LAMP FOR THE FOOT-PATH. 

n OD'S word as a guiding light is a lamp unto our 
feet, not a sun flooding a hemisphere. It is not 
meant to shine upon miles of road, but in the darkest 
night it will always show us the one next step ; then 
when we have taken that, carrying the lamp forward, 
it will show us another step, and thus on till it brings 
us out into the full, clear sunlight of coming day. It 
is a lamp, and it is designed to lighten only little steps, 
one by one. We need to learn well the lesson of 
patience if we would have God guide us. He does 
not lead us rapidly. Sometimes we must go very 
slowly if we wait for him. Only pace by pace does 
he take us, and unless we wait, we must go in dark- 
ness. But if we wait for him, it will always be light 
for one step. 

©ctofar 19* 

THE SIN AND PERIL OF FAILURE. 

'TO be faithless in duty is to lose all the blessing 

which is promised to those who are loyal and true. 

No matter how perilous the duty that comes to you, 

you cannot decline it save at your own peril. The 

205 



October 19* 

only safe way in life's thronging field is straight on in 
the path of duty. No duty, however perilous or hard, 
should be feared half so much as failure in the duty. 
Stand where Christ places you, and be simply true — 
that is all. Make no effort to be great. The greatest 
thing possible to you any day is faithfulness. Only 
be faithful. He requires no more of the highest 
angel in glory. 

©ctofrer 20. 

IMMORTALITY OF ACTIONS. 

OINCE every impression is enduring, since every 
act leaves its mark on the life itself, as well as on 
other lives, since the smallest things we do become 
parts of our own being, while they also touch and 
affect others, — what tremendous destinies are folded up 
in each quiet day of ours ! The things you are doing 
these swift hours are for eternity. The words you 
spoke yesterday for Christ in the ear of the weary suf- 
ferer, the strong, helpful words you spoke to the dis- 
couraged one, the tempted one, the burdened one, the 
thought of comfort you breathed softly and with a 
prayer in the home of grief — do you know that the 
ministry of these good words will never cease ? 

206 



©ctober 21* 

AFTER-VIEWS THE TRUEST VIEWS. 

TPHE real character of actions is seen only when we 
look at them from the side next eternity. You 
had a duty to perform which at the time was a cross 
to you. It required courage. It involved self-denial 
and personal sacrifice. It was very hard to do. You 
look back upon it, however, and it appears a beautiful 
act, and you are not sorry you made the sacrifice. This 
after-view is the true one. Sin in the form of tempta- 
tion seems fascinating, but sin committed looks horri- 
ble. Again the after-view is the true one. The point 
from which we see a human life in its truest light is its 
end, looking back over it from the edge of eternity. 
The false colors fade out in the light of the judgment. 

(BttoUx 22. 

LIVING OUT GOD'S THOUGHTS. 

F ET your highest ambition be to become what God 
has planned for you. Lay all your plans at his 
feet. Let God's will be your will, and he will lead 
you to just that life which will be for you the most 
beautiful, the most honorable and the most blessed. 
If you would have God's thoughts to live out in your 

207 



©ctofar 22. 

life, you must go to God for them. You must sit down 
often with him in the silence. You must look rever- 
ently into the divine Word and ponder deeply its holy 
sentences. You must turn your steps habitually to the 
place of prayer. You will not have heavenly visions 
if you never look upward for them. 

©rto&er 23. 

CLIMBING BY SELF-CONQUEST. 

|7 VERY low desire, every bad habit, all longings for 
ignoble things, all wrong feelings that we conquer 
and trample down, become ladder-rounds for our feet, 
on which we climb upward out of groveling and sin- 
fulness into nobler, grander life. If we are not living 
victoriously these little common days, we are not mak- 
ing any progress in true living. Only those who climb 
are getting toward the stars. Heaven at last, and the 
heavenly life here, are for those who overcome. 

©ctotrer 24 

SILENCE UNDER CALUMNY. 

A NY of us may some time become the innocent vic- 
tim of calumny. Pure in our heart and life, we 

208 



may have to endure suspicion of evil. As Christians 
what should we do ? In some cases vindication may 
be possible, and it may be our duty to seek it in the 
right way. But there may be instances when we can- 
not free ourselves without bringing dishonor upon 
others. Then we must be silent and bear our load. 
We are not likely to err in the direction of too great 
patience and silence under wrong ; our danger lies the 
other way. So let us beware lest, when others injure 
us or defame us, we sin against God in trying to vin- 
dicate ourselves. Let us rather suffer, and leave our 
vindication with God-^committing ourselves to him 
who judgeth righteously. 

©ctofter 25. 

NOT CLAIMING OUR PRIVILEGES. 

A RE not many of us conscious that we are living far 
below our privileges ? Do we not understand that 
we are not as good Christians, as rich in character, as 
fruitful in life, as we might be ? Do we not know that 
there is a possible fullness of spiritual blessedness which 
we have not yet attained ? Why is it ? Is there any 
want in God, from whom all good gifts come ? Is not 
the reason in ourselves ? Is it not because we cling to 

14 209 



©tfo&er 25* 

other things, earthly things, which fill our hearts and 
leave but small room for Christ ? We have not the 
hunger for righteousness, for holiness, and though 
there is abundance of provision close before us, yet 
our souls are starving. If we would have the abun- 
dant life which Christ wants to give us, we must empty 
out of our hearts the perishing trifles that fill them, 
and make room for the Holy Spirit. We must pray 
for spiritual hunger, for only to those who hunger 
comes the promise of filling and satisfying. 



©ctotor 26. 

LOVE — MINISTRY. 

F OVE for Christ in human hearts shapes itself into 
manifold forms of gentle, helpful ministry, accord- 
ing to the quality, the circumstances and the relations 
of each life. What we need to make sure of is that we 
truly have the spirit of service, " the mind that was in 
Christ Jesus." It is not great deeds that God expects 
or requires of us, unless he has endowed us with large 
gifts and has given us great things to do. He gives 
us certain talents and puts us in certain relations, and 
then asks us to be faithful — nothing more. The man 

210 



©ctofar 26. 

with the plain gifts and the small opportunities is not 
expected to do the great things that are required of 
the man with the brilliant talents and the large oppor- 
tunities. " She hath done what she could " is the high- 
est approving word that could be spoken of any one, 
and it may be only for a smile of love and a crust 
given in Christ's name. 

©ctofar 27. 

THE BLESSEDNESS OP DEATH. 

PHRISTIAN life in this world is not a voyage in 
the sunshine, darkening as it progresses and grow- 
ing stormy, ending in utter wreck on death's shores ; 
rather, it is a voyage through earthly storm and 
shadow, but at last out into the broad ocean of 
eternal blessedness. Death is not the end, but the 
beginning. It is not loss, but gain. It is not into 
darkness, but into marvellous light. It is not to 
silence and stillness, but into life far more real and 
active. It is not away from joy and gladness and 
beauty, but is out of the mere hints and shadows and 
hopes of blessedness into the full revelation of Christ, 
into his very presence, w T here there is fullness of joy, 
where there are pleasures for evermore. 

211 



©ctotrer 28. 

FINISHING OUR WORK. 

rj,OD first puts the good thoughts and the holy im- 
pulses into your heart. Then when you try to 
obey and do what he commands and suggests, he helps 
you to do it. " It is God which worketh in you both 
to will and to work." If character is a web and we 
are weavers, we cannot ourselves prepare white, clean 
threads of thought and purpose and love, for our 
hearts are unclean ; nor can we weave the threads 
into a pure, unsoiled web, for our hands are stained. 
God must put into our hearts the beautiful threads. 
He must give us the pattern, too, into which he would 
have us fashion the fabric. Then he must cleanse our 
hands and guide our fingers. In weaving this web we 
must not miss a thread, for if we do the loom goes on 
and the web rolls by, but the place of the dropped 
thread remains unfilled. Would you be able to say at 
your life's end, " I have finished the work which God 
gave me to do," you must be sure that each smallest 
duty is done in its own time. To have at last a fin- 
ished life, each day must close with its duty all done, 
no tasks remaining unfinished. That is, each day's 
work must be left complete, with life's duty done up 
to that moment, as if we should never come again to 
our tasks. 

212 



©cto&er 29- 

SERVING THE HIGHEST LIFE. 

POD gives us in the darkness of this world many- 
glimpses of heaven's blessed life. The Scriptures 
are full of windows through which the light pours. 
And every disclosure of heavenly existence that is 
made to us shows us life without one trace of selfish- 
ness, earnestly devoted to the service of others. Angel- 
life is very pure, holy and blessed, and yet these celestial 
beings, the angels, find their employment in serving. It 
is their joy to minister, not to be ministered unto. If we 
would be as the angels, we must have the same spirit. 
Then the Son of God came, and his life's spirit was 
described in his own words : " The Son of Man came 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Serving 
is therefore the most exalted, the divinest, thought of 
life. 

©cto&er 30. 

OBEDIENCE TO IMPULSES. 

AXTE all have our impulses to duty. We know what 
we ought to do. What do we do with the calls 
of duty and the cries and appeals of human distress ? 
Do we allow them to die away unheeded ? If we do, 
our own souls shall be losers. We walk about at home, 
and we see heathenism, misery and squalor, under the 

213 



October 30. 

very shadows of our churches. We catch on all hands 
the sobs and moanings of human distress. And we are 
ordained by Christ to carry his salvation, his comfort, 
his grace to our fellow- men. The news of God's love 
which has come to you is not for yourself; you get the 
full rich blessing of it only when you tell it to some 
other. Do we obey these divine impulses? 



T 



©cto&er 31* 

TRAINING THE TEMPER. 

EMPER itself is not an evil power, a demoniacal 



possessiou, in any one. Temper may make irre- 
parable mischief if allowed to run untamed, but when 
brought under the sway of a sanctified will it becomes 
an element of great power. A strong temper held in 
perfect leash gives majesty to the life. And there is 
no temper which cannot be brought under control 
through God's help. Let none of us despair, there- 
fore, if we have a strong temper which ofttimes leads 
us to sinful outbursts. We can tame our temper until 
the most impatient of us shall become and shall remain 
calm and quiet under the sorest provocation. Yet we 
shall never get past the need of watchfulness, for a 
conquered lion is a lion still if the old spirit is aroused. 

214 



GOD NEEDS OUR FAITHFULNESS. 

P OD'S providence is always good, but he needs our 
faithfulness, our truest and best work always to 
give full expression and result to the good that he 
plans. It is possible for us to mar the good that God 
intends, and to turn his work into disaster that he 
never intended. God never does his work unfaith- 
fully, and we dare not charge to his providence the 
preventible accidents of life, those which come through 
men's carelessness or dishonesty or greed of gain or 
fault of any sort. We must remember that even the 
providence of God cannot work completely or perfectly 
without our little work, each and every one's little 
work, well done. 

THE RADIANT IDEAL. 

^lATE may become like the angels. What debasement, 
then, to let our lives, with all their glorious possi- 
bilities, be dragged down into the dust of shame and 
dishonor ! Kather let us seek continually the glory 
for which we were made and redeemed. "Beloved, 
now are we children of God, and it is not yet made 

215 



manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall 
be manifested., we shall be like him ; for we shall see 
him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope 
set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 

" Wonderful the whiteness of thy glory ! 

Can we truly that perfection share ? 
Yes ; our lives are pages of thy story, 

We thy shape and superscription bear ; 
Tarnished forms — torn leaves — but thou canst mend them ; 

Thou thine own completeness canst unfold 
From our imperfections, and wilt end them — 

Dross consuming, turning dust to gold." 

AMUSEMENT AS A MEANS OF GRACE. 

A MUSEMENT must never become an end in life ; it 
must always be a means, a help on the way, just 
as sleep is, just as rest is. An hour's amusement should 
be to you just what a night's sleeping is, or what a day's 
resting is : it should make you stronger, clearer-headed, 
calmer-souled, braver, more hopeful, more earnest, more 
enthusiastic, inspiring you for better life. Anything 
that leaves a taint of impurity upon the life or starts 
a thought of impurity in the mind, anything that 

2J6 



degrades or debases the soul, is unfit and unworthy 
amusement for a Christian. Christian amusements 
must be such as do not harm spiritual life ; they must 
be means of grace. 

Nobember 4* 

SILENCES THAT ARE SINFUL. 

TN every life there are times when to be silent is to 
fail in duty. We are to speak out on all occasions 
when the glory of Christ demands it. We should 
never fear to speak the word of warning to one in 
danger. We should never hesitate to speak boldly in 
confession of Christ in the presence of his enemies. 
To be ashamed of him is a grievous wrong to him. 
Many of us sin, too, by our silence toward hearts that 
are hungry for love. On our tongues lie the words 
that would give blessing, but we hold our peace and 
let the sad hearts break. Many of us talk too much, 
no doubt — "speech is silver and silence is golden" — 
but let us remember also that there is a time to 
speak." 

Nobemfar 5* 

COST OF HELPING OTHERS. 

TT is only when you have passed through the fierce- 
ness of temptation, wrestling with evil, sore beset, 
217 



and victorious only through the grace of Christ, that 
you are ready to be a helper of others in their tempta- 
tion. It is only when you have known sorrow in some 
form yourself, and when you have been comforted by 
divine grace and helped to endure, that you are fitted 
to be a comforter of others in their sorrow. You must 
learn before you can teach, and the learning costs. At 
no small price can we become true helpers of others in 
this world. Lessons which cost us nothing are worth 
but little. Virtue went out of Jesus to heal others ; 
virtue must go out of us to become life and benedic- 
tion to other souls. 

No&emfor 6* 

THE HEART OP PRAYER. 

TWTEKE words do not make prayer. The repeating 
of forms of petition, however beautiful they may 
be or however eloquently uttered, is not praying. 
There must be fire — the fire of love glowing upon the 
golden altar of the heart. There must be sincere wor- 
ship of soul ; there must be fervency of spirit ; there 
must be warm, earnest desire. The prayer must be 
kindled in the heart by the love of God shed abroad 
by the Holy Spirit. Unless our very heart goes into 

218 



our forms of words, borne on faith's wings and press- 
ing to God's feet, we do not really pray. 

Nobemtor 7+ 

THE TRANSFORMING LOOK. 

t^EEPING the eye upon the likeness of Christ trans- 
figures the life. The old monks intently gazed 
upon the crucifix, and they said that the print of the 
nails would come in their hands and feet and the 
thorn-scars in their brow as they beheld. It was but 
a gross fancy, yet in the fancy there is a spiritual truth. 
Gazing by faith upon Christ, the lines of his beauty 
indeed print themselves on our hearts. That is the 
meaning of St. Paul's words : " We all, with unveiled 
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, 
are transformed into the same image." The gospel is 
the mirror. There we see the image of Christ. If we 
earnestly, continuously and lovingly behold it, the 
effect will be the changing of our own lives into the 
same likeness. The transformation is wrought by the 
divine Spirit, and our part is only to behold, to con- 
tinue beholding, the blessed beauty. We sit before 
the camera, and our own picture is printed on the pre- 
pared glass. We sit before Christ, and we become the 
camera and his image is printed on our soul. 

219 



EMPTY CONVERSATION. 

CHRISTIAN conversation should not be a mere 
jargon of empty, idle words. There are many 
people who talk incessantly and never say anything 
worth repeating or remembering. They never give 
any comfort to those who are in trouble. They never 
incite those who hear them to anything noble or good. 
Their words if gathered up would be millions of blos- 
soms and not one handful of fruit ; tons of sand and 
not one shining sparkle of gold. Surely such conver- 
sation is not worthy of immortal beings, children of 
God and heirs of glory, on their way home' to glory. 

LET THE BLESSING FLOW OUT. 

^XTHILE you are to brighten first the place nearest to 
you, you are also to throw the little beams of your 
lamp as far as they will reach. It will not make your 
own home any less bright if on a dark night you open 
the shutters of your windows and let some of the bril- 
liancy and the cheer pour out upon the street. Then 
others too may be blessed by the light that fills your 
home. If you have a beautiful garden, why should 
you build a high wall around it to hide it from the 

220 



eyes of passers-by ? Would it not be a more Christ- 
like thing to tear down your stone wall and let all that 
move along the street be blessed and cheered by the 
beauty ? 

Noto&er \0. 

ON LOOKING FOR SLIGHTS. 

AXf E must look to ourselves and take heed how we 
receive the acts, the words and the manners of 
others. If we are proud and are always on the watch 
for slights and unfriendly hints and little hurts, we can 
find plenty of them. We need, therefore, to cultivate 
the spirit of humility in all our intercourse with others. 
We need to learn patience, forbearance, longsuffering, 
meekness, forgiveness — in a word, love, love that think- 
eth no evil. Then we shall never be suspicious, never 
be exacting, never demand our " rights." We shall 
endure even intended wrongs patiently, sweetly, with 
true meekness. 

THE WINSOMENESS OP LOVE. 

"POD loves you and I love you," says Mr. McAll to 
the poor people he would lift up. There is little 

221 



No&em&er XX* 

use in telling people the first part of this message if 
we cannot tell them also the second part, or at least 
make them see it in our face, in our words and acts, 
in our true, tireless interest in them. The love of 
Christ must throb in our own hearts and shine in our 
eyes and speak in our words and offer itself again on 
the cross in our lives, in our efforts to save others, if 
we would win souls for heaven. We must love the 
people we would win. We must have some conception 
of the infinite value of the lives we try to save in order 
that we may love them. Without this we cannot 
deeply and truly care for those whom, sin has 
stripped of beauty. But if we understand their real 
worth and the possibilities there are in their lives, it 
will not be hard for us to love even the farthest away 
from God. 

Nobem&er X2* 

KEEP THE IDEAL UNDIMMED. 

AXTE each have in our soul, if we are true believers 
in Christ, a vision of spiritual loveliness into 
which we are striving to fashion our lives. This vis- 
ion is our conception of the character of Christ. " That 
is what I am going to be some day," we say. Far away 

222 



beyond our present attainment as this vision may shine, 
yet we are ever striving to reach it. This is the ideal 
which we carry in our heart amid all our toiling and 
struggling. This ideal we must keep free from all 
marring or stain. We must save it though we lose 
our very life in guarding it. We should be willing to 
die rather than give it up to be destroyed. We should 
preserve the image of Christ, bright, radiant, unsoiled, 
in our soul until it transforms our dull, sinful, earthly 
life into its own transfigured beauty. 



Nofomfar 13, 

DO NOT WORRY. 

"XXTE have nothing to do with to-morrow until we get 
to it. When the day comes with its cares, then 
we may meet them and then God will provide for them. 
Duty only is ours — the faithful, diligent doing of God's 
will day by day. The rest is God's, and anxious care 
is unbelief. Our Father will surely take care of us 
if we are only faithful to him. Away then, with anx- 
iety. Do your work, your duty, the bit of God's will 
for the day, and let God care for you. Then the peace 
of God shall keep your heart and mind. 

223 



Nobemfar U* 

PROMOTION BY FAITHFULNESS. 

"IXTE are always on trial in this world. God's pro- 
motions are all in the line of fidelity. When we 
do well with one talent, he puts two into our hand. 
When we show ourselves faithful and capable with 
two, he adds two more. This is true not only of ordi- 
nary business capacities and fidelities, but also of moral 
and spiritual powers and privileges. When we do any- 
thing well, God increases our responsibilities, puts new 
trusts into our charge. But failure in any testing 
brings the loss of the trusts already in our hands. 
If we would grow into great usefulness, We must be 
ever watchful that we fail in no duty or trial. 

Nobemfcer 15. 

LOOKING FOR BLESSINGS. 

T\0 we take the blessings that the common days 
bring to us? Do we extract the honey from 
every flower that grows by our path ? Do not angels 
come to us unawares, in homely or unattractive dis- 
guise, walk with us, talk with us, and then only be- 
come known to us when they have flown away — when 
their places are empty ? Shall we not learn to see the 

224 



goodness and the beauty in the gifts that God sends to 
us? Their very commonness veils their blessedness. 
Let us seek for the good in everything. Then, though 
we see it not, let us never doubt that it lies hidden in 
every gift of God to us. Every moment brings us 
some benediction. Even the rough hand of trial holds 
in its clasp for us some treasure of love. 

Nofomtor 16* 

UNCOMMON CHRISTIANS. 

T3E not satisfied with a mere feeble measure of spirit- 
ual life. Strive to have the abundant life and to 
be full-rounded Christians. Seek to have every power 
of your life developed to its utmost possibility of beauty 
and usefulness. Find out whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, and strive to have every 
mark and line of beauty in your own life. Grow to- 
ward God in all upward, heavenward reaching. Grow 
toward men on earth in all unselfishness and loving ser- 
vice. Grow in your own soul into the fullness of the 
stature of Christ. And all this you will gain by be- 
coming filled more and more with Christ himself. It 
was the daily prayer of one saintly man, " O God, * 
make me an uncommon Christian." 

15 225 



Nobember X7* 

SELF-SACRIFICE. 

TPHE path of ministry is a shining ladder steep and 
hard to climb, but it leads to God's feet. Whoso- 
ever would be chief, let him serve. The world is try- 
ing to scramble up another way. It thinks the path 
of unselfish service leads downward. But we have 
Christ's word that he is greatest who serves most self- 
forgetfully. Forget yourself. Consecrate your life to 
Christ. There is no other way to immortal success. 
Your life will seem to sink away and be lost, but it 
will be like the rain-drops that fall and disappear, only 
to come again in living beauty. No life of self-sacri- 
fice for Christ shall fail of eternal honor. 

Nobemfter 18* 

WHAT MAKES HEAVEN ? 

XXTHAT makes heaven ? Not its jeweled walls and 
pearl gates and streets of golden pave and sea of 
glass and river of crystal, but its blessed obedience, its 
sweet holiness, its universal and unbroken accord with 
the divine will and its spirit of love. Heaven never 
can be entered by any in whose hearts the spirit of 
heaven is not first found. Heaven must be in us or 
we can never enter its gates. We are prepared for 

226 



Nobem&er \$* 

heaven, made meet for the inheritance of the saints, 
therefore, just in the measure in which we have 
learned to do God's will here on earth as it is done 
by angels and saints in that home of divine glory. 

Nobemtor 19. 

MISERY OF BORROWING TROUBLE. 

lUTANY people are always dreading coming troubles. 
They are well enough now, and well enough oif, 
but they may get sick or they may become poor, or 
some other trouble may befall them. A large part of 
human unhappiness is caused by needless forebod- 
ings — dreading ills that never happen. It is a miser- 
able way to live, this looking out into the future and 
filling it with imaginary shapes of evil. No doubt 
there are real troubles lying concealed in the future 
for all of us, but let us not dread to go on with quiet 
faith, since over us the bow of God's eternal goodness 
bends. 

November 20. 

WHY ALWAYS PEOPLE'S FAULTS ? 

AX^E are all very much alike in this world as it re- 
gards faults and failings. We all have plenty 

227 



Nobemtor 20. 

of them. Each one of us has at least enough of his 
own to make him very modest in pointing out those of 
his neighbor. The trouble is, however, that most of 
us have eyes so constructed or so adjusted as to see the 
faults of others much more clearly than our own. It 
is not hard to get almost anybody started at criticizing 
others and pointing out their infirmities. What a pity 
it is that we have not eyes for the beautiful things in 
others ! What a relief it would be to hear everybody 
you meet speaking in commendation of his neighbors 
and praising their virtues ! Would it not be worth 
while to try to turn the tides of talk into this new 
channel for a time? 

Nofcemter 2\+ 

DOING IMPOSSIBLE THINGS. 

TXTHEN God calls us to any service or task or duty 
whatsoever, no supposed personal incapacity, in- 
competency or insufficiency may ever be urged as a 
reason for not obeying. God never really bids us do 
a thing we cannot do, and do well, with his help. He 
would not mock us with an unreasonable requirement. 
The achieving of impossible commands of course is 
not our business at all. We have nothing whatever 
to do with the impossible part ; that belongs to God. 

228 



Nobemfar 21. 

But we have everything to do with the obeying of the 
command that comes to us. It is not ours to reason, 
to demur, to urge inability ; it is ours promptly, un- 
questioningly to obey, and then as we go forward God 
will divide the water or cleave the mountain or roll 
away the stone. As we approach the obstacle, going in 
holy obedience, we shall find the way open for our feet. 

No&emfor 22. 

BEAUTIFUL LIVING. 

IXTE do not know when we are working for immor- 
tality, by what act or word of ours we shall be 
remembered. It may be the obscurest thing of our 
life that shall shine in the most radiant glory. Let 
us, then, seek to make everything we do beautiful 
enough to be our epitaph. If our hearts are always 
full of love, our lives will be full of gentle deeds that 
will please God and bless the world. Then we shall 
write our names where no floods of years, no abrasion 
of events, no wasting tooth of decay, no hungry waves 
of time eating away the bank whereon we stand can 
ever destroy the record. To neglect the least duty 
may be to spoil our own immortality. One oppor- 
tunity missed may be the marring of our whole life. 

229 



Nobemfter 23. 

REJECTED BLESSINGS. 

TV[0 wonder many of us are so poor in spiritual things. 
To our doors evermore come the heavenly mes- 
sengers, their hands laden with rich blessings which 
they wish to give to us. But we are so intent on our 
petty earthly ambitions that we do not see them nor 
open our doors to them, and, waiting long in vain, 
they at last turn sadly away, leaving us unblessed in 
our poverty. If we would but train ourselves to take 
whatever gift God sends to us, we should soon become 
rich. God's blessings are ever at our doors. He is 
the giving God. The trouble with us is that we do 
not always recognize the blessings when they are of- 
fered to us. Some of the richest of them come in 
forms of pain or struggle or sorrow. Let us learn to 
accept God's gifts, whether they shine in joy or are 
veiled in shadows. 

CHARACTER-QUARRIES. 

T^VERY individual life has its quarries, where are 

hewn the blocks that are afterward built into 

character, where the thoughts are shaped which take 

form in acts and heroisms and noble works. There 

230 



are two parts in every life — the heart-quarry, which the 
world does not see, and the life as it takes form in the 
eyes of men. Men must have a good heart-life before 
they can have a good character and make a worthy 
record. Men must be silent thinkers before their 
words or deeds can have either great beauty or wide 
influence. Extemporaneousness anywhere is of little 
value. Easy thinking never leads to very high living. 

THE RADIANCE OF GOD'S WILL. 

'THERE are many Christians who grieve when they 
cannot serve their Lord in some form of active 
labor for Christ. When sickness shuts them in and 
they can go forth no longer to their accustomed work, 
they mourn that they must be so useless. They forget 
that that is God's will, and that the doing of God's will 
is always the finest thing possible in this world for any 
one. We worry about not carrying out our plans — 
the large plans we make for our own lives. But it 
really matters very little what comes of our plans if 
only we do what Gods marks out for us. A successful 
life in the end is one which has done that for which 
God created it. 

231 



Nofamber 26. 

THE CHASTENING OF LOVE. 

"WHOM the Lord loveth he chasteneth." So chas- 
tening is a mark of God's love and also a seal 
of sonship, for he " scourgeth every son that he re- 
ceiveth." No true father permits a child to grow up 
undisciplined, having its own way all the while, its 
life running unchecked into waywardness, willfulness 
and self-indulgence. The true father chastens. Mark, 
it is not punishment that God inflicts, but chastening. 
It is not anger or hatred that makes him at times 
severe, denying the child's requests. It is love that 
leads him to chasten. If we were not his children he 
would not trouble to chasten us. It is the fruitful 
branch the husbandman prunes to make it more fruit- 
ful ; the unfruitful branch he cuts off and burns. It 
is the Father's child that he chastens. 

Nofomfar 27. 

REMEMBERING PAST BLESSINGS. 

^IXTE should remember past mercies and blessings. 

If we do, our past will shine down upon us like 

a clear sky full of stars. Such remembering will keep 

the gratitude ever fresh in our hearts and the incense 

232 



Nobemfar 27* 

of praise ever burning on the altar. Such a house of 
memory becomes a refuge to which we may flee in 
trouble. When sorrows gather thickly, when trials 
come, when the sun goes down and every star is 
quenched and there seems nothing left to our hearts 
in all the present, then the memory of a past full of 
goodness, a past in which God has never once failed 
us, becomes a holy refuge for our souls— a refuge 
gemmed and lighted by the lamps of other and 
brighter days. 

No&emfar 28. 

OUR PLACE IN THE TEMPLE. 

TTHE great Master-builder, in whose quarries we are 
now as stones that are being made ready for the 
temple, has a plan for his building. Every life has its 
own particular place in that plan. God knows what 
he wants you to be — how large or how small a place he 
wants you to fill. We must submit our lives to the 
hammer and the chisel and to the divine measurement, 
that we may be prepared for the place God is prepar- 
ing for us. We must not wince under the sharp cut- 
ting of disappointment and sorrow. 

" When God afflicts thee, think he hews a rugged stone 
Which must be shaped, or else aside as useless thrown." 
233 



November 29. 

THE BLESSING OF A BOOK. 

TDOOKS are not altogether impersonal things. Some- 
body wrote them. Somebody's life-blood is in them. 
Somebody lived, suffered, wept, struggled and toiled to 
put into the book that which pleases and helps us. 
Should we not think of this as we read the sentences 
which delight us or which inspire and quicken us? 
Do we often, indeed, give thought to the writer whose 
written words bring to us their messages ? Do we not 
forget ofttimes that it is somebody's heart-blood which 
runs in the sentences we are reading, somebody's very 
life, if the words are truly helpful ? Do we then owe 
nothing to the author ? Be sure the lessons he is teach- 
ing have cost him pain and tears. He had to live 
deeply to write helpfully. Some recognition of the 
help we have gotten from him we certainly owe to 
him. Should we not write to him our thanks for the 
gift he has put into our life ? 

Nobcmfrer 30. 

THE MINISTRY OP WAITING. 

l^ACH one of us does his own little part in carrying 

out God's great plan. If our part is to stand and 

wait, it is no less honorable than his who comes after 

2U 



November 30. 

us and takes up what fell from our hands and carries 
it on to completion. Said the blind Milton : 

" They also serve who only stand and wait." 

" The world comes to him that can wait/' says the 
proverb ; and victory comes, and rest comes, and God 
comes, and glory comes, to him that can wait. 

Jtemfar X. 

CLIMBING TO SAINTHOOD. 

1WTEN do not fly up mountains : they go up slowly, 
step by step. True Christian life is always moun- 
tain-climbing. Heaven is above us, and ever keeps 
above us. It never gets easy to go heavenward. It 
is a slow and painful process to grow better. Xo one 
leaps to sainthood at a bound. Xobody gets the vic- 
tory once for all over his faults and sins. It is a strug- 
gle of years, and every day must have its victories if 
we are ever to be final and complete overcomers. 
Yet while we cannot expect to reach the radiant 
mountain-summit at one bound, we certainly ought 
to be climbing at least step by step. We ought not to 
sit on the same little terrace, part way up the moun- 
tain, day after day. Higher and higher should be our 
unresting aim. 

235 



a stone's-cast further. 

TESUS took his chosen friends with him into Geth- 
semane. Those who love us most truly must share 
our sorrow with us. But it is noteworthy, also, that 
Jesus himself went deeper into the shadows of the gar- 
den than he asked his friends to go. Is not this fact 
most suggestive ? We need not fear that in any grief 
of ours we shall ever be alone, without companionship. 
We shall never find ourselves in shadows too deep for 
the sympathy and help of the Christ. However far 
into the garden of sorrow we may ever be led, if we 
lift up our eyes we shall see that Jesus is on before us, 
a stone's-cast further than he has asked us to go. 

CERTAINTY OP REWARD. 

, \XJ r E need give ourselves no trouble about the reward 
of our life. Be it ours only to do our duty faith- 
fully, sweetly, lovingly, all the days ; then God will 
see that we do not miss the reward of fidelity. Our 
Lord suggests that the righteous will be surprised at 
the Judgment to learn of the glory and greatness of 
the services of love they have rendered to needy ones. 
Supposing only that they were showing kindness to the 

236 



poor, they will learn that they were serving the King 
himself. Thus the smallest and obscurest ministry will 
flash out in splendid radiancy in the day of final re- 
vealing. No true service done in this w T orld in Christ's 
name will fail of blessing and reward. Even the acts 
which seem to have been of no avail will leave a bene- 
diction somewhere. If your kind word or deed blesses 
no other, the doing of it will bless your own heart. 
Though your effort do no good to the one you meant 
to help, it may touch another life. Our wayside seed- 
sowing is not lost. 

Dmm&er 4 

HONORING BY TAKING. 

AA^E honor God most, w T e make the fittest requital to 
him for his benefits, not by giving to him, but by 
receiving from him. Love wants no return for what 
it gives or does. God does not show favors in order to 
receive as much again. He gives because his heart is 
full of love, because he yearns to bless us. The only 
requital he wants is the glad acceptance of what he 
offers. He wants only love in return. Consecration ? 
Yes, but the consecration of love, and not as recom- 
pense or repayment. The Psalmist asks: 

237 



December 4* 



" What shall I render unto the Lord 
For all his benefits toward me ?" 

And then he answers : 

" I will take the cup of salvation, 
And call upon the name of the Lord." 

Wtttxribzx 5* 

HOW UNBELIEF ROBS US. 

P HEIST never compels any one to take the gifts and 
blessings which he has to bestow. We complain 
of our sparse blessedness. We wonder why God does 
not manifest himself to us as he has done to others. 
We wonder we cannot have such power in prayer as 
some Christians have — why so little seems to come from 
our work for Christ. It is not from any lack of power 
in Christ, for his strength never fails nor wastes : it is 
because we will not receive *what he brings. Unbelief 
shuts up Christ's hand that it cannot give to us the 
things of his grace or cannot work deliverances for 
us. Thus our unbelief keeps us impoverished. It 
hides God's face and robs us of the deep rich joys 
which faith would bring. Shall we not pray for sim- 
ple faith that we may receive large things ? 

238 



Mttemhex 6* 

FROZEN LOVE. 

TTHERE is a great deal of love that lacks affection- 
ateness. Some one speaks of beautiful cathedrals 
with all their splendid architecture as " frozen music." 
There is a great deal of frozen love in this world. It 
is stately, strong and beautiful, but it lacks tender ex- 
pression. It lies cold and crystal in the heart, and 
never flows out in tenderness of word or act. There 
are hundreds of homes in our land in which there is 
love that would die for its dear ones if there were need, 
while yet in those very homes hearts are starving for 
love's daily bread. 

THE BLESSING OP FRIENDSHIP. 

"DARTNERS in cares" the old Romans called true 
friends. True friendship implies mutual helpful- 
ness. It is not all on one side ; where such friendship 
is there are always two shoulders under every burden. 
Friendship knows no limit in serving ; it gives all, life 
itself, if need be. Its yearning is not to receive, but 
to give ; not to be ministered unto, but to minister. 
The cynic sneers at the thought of friendship, but 
there are holy human friendships whose beauty and 

239 



December 7* 

splendor remind us, amid the world's selfishness and 
hardness, that man was made in the image of God, 
that fragments of that image yet exist even in fallen 
lives, and that it is possible at last, through God's 
grace, to restore the heavenly lustre. 

©ecem&er 8* 

THE MISSION OP A DISCIPLE. 

P HEIST no longer goes about in person among men, 
laying his hands on the sick, the lame, the blind, 
the children. This work he has entrusted to his dis- 
ciples. He wants us to represent him. He wants us 
to be to the sick, the sorrowing, the stricken, the 
fallen, what he would be to them if he were here 
again on the earth. It is not hard for us to know, 
therefore, what it is to be a true Christian. We have 
but to study the story of our Lord's life, watching how 
he helped and blessed others, to get the key to all 
Christian duty. His miracles we cannot repeat, but 
his sympathy, his gentleness, his thoughtfulness, his 
unselfishness, are patterns for our human imitation. 
If we catch his inner spirit, " the mind that was in 
Christ," we will become great blessings wherever we 
go in his name. Then our touch will soothe, our 

240 



HJecemfter 8* 

words will comfort, strengthen and inspire, and our 
deeds of love will leave benedictions on every life. 

©ecemher 9. 

RECEIVING TO GIVE. 

A S we receive each new lesson in life, each new piece 
of knowledge, each new experience, each fresh in- 
spiration, our attitude should be one of reverent and 
humble unselfishness. We should say, " This is a gift 
from God to me, and I am his servant. It is not mine 
to keep all to myself, for my own enjoyment. God 
gave it to me to make me more a blessing. I must 
not keep this light burning in the narrow chamber of 
my own life merely ; I must place it so that it will 
throw its beam upon some other life." Helen Hunt 
Jackson writes: 

" I am a humble pensioner, myself, for my daily bread : 
Shall I forget my brothers who seem in greater need ? 
I know not how it happened that I have more than they, 
Unless God meant that I should give a larger part away. 
The humblest wayside beggar and I have wants the same, 
Close side by side we walked when God called out one name. 
So, brother, it but happened the name he called was mine ; 
The food was given for both — here, half of it is thine." 
16 241 



MtczmUx TO* 

UNCHRIST-LIKE FORGIVENESS. 

HTHERE are some people whose forgiveness is little 
better than their malice. They never let you for- 
get that they have forgiven you. Indeed, you some- 
times almost wish they had not forgiven you at all, so 
miserable and so aggravating is their charity. Let us 
learn to forgive generously, richly, making our forgive- 
ness complete, sweeping for ever away all grudge and 
bitterness. 

Mttemhtx XX* 

VICTORY BY WAITING. 

' UST life be a failure for one compelled to stand 
still in enforced inaction and see the great throb- 
bing tides of life go by ? No ; victory is then to be 
gotten by standing still, by quiet waiting. It is a 
thousand times harder to do this than it was in the 
active days to rush on in the columns of stirring life. 
It requires a grander heroism to stand and wait and 
not lose heart and not lose hope, to submit to the will 
of God, to give up work and honors to others, to be 
quiet, confident and rejoicing, while the happy, busy 
multitude goes on and away. It is the grandest life 
"having done all, to stand." 

242 



Wtttmbtx \2. 

A SURE HARVEST. 

"IXTHILE God may not give us the exact result which 
we hope to realize in the things we do for him, he 
will give some other result which will prove even bet- 
ter. No work for Christ will fail. No effort put forth 
for him will be in vain. Says Charles Kingsley : 

" Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed ; 
What though the seed be cast by the wayside 
And the birds take it ? yet the birds are fed." 

Even if there be no result here in this world, there 
will be a result in the world to come. Many people 
die and see yet no harvest from their life's sowing. 
But if they have been faithful, their eyes will open, 
when they enter heaven, on a blessed vision of ripened 
harvest in glory from their sowing on earth. 

©mm&er 13* 

PROMISE AND PRAYER. 

HTHERE is really no true praying which is not based 
on a divine promise. We may never pray unqual- 
ifiedly unless there be a promise for the thing we want. 
But when God has promised anything to us we can go 

243 



JBecember 13* 

to him with boldness and ask him to do as he has said. 
But why ask, if he has promised ? Asking shows faith. 
Asking is the acceptance on our part of what God of- 
fers. Ask and ye shall receive ; ask not and ye shall 
not receive. Find a promise for what you want, and 
then bring it boldly to God. If you have no plain 
promise, ask humbly, submissively and modestly, leav- 
ing altogether to his wise love the things about which 
you are uncertain. 

Mtttmbtx t4 

" MASTER, I AM READY." 

"T AM ready." That is what consecration means. 
It is doing what Christ commands. It is going 
where Christ sends you. It is not a mere devout sen- 
timent — warmth of heart, good feeling; it is being 
good and doing good. Oh, be earnest. Be faithful. 
Be true. Be strong. Believe in Christ. Cleave to 
him. Do your work for him. Lift up your face to- 
ward your beloved Master's face, and say to him, 
" Master, I am ready. I know not what thou hast 
for me to do — to work or to suffer, to live or to die — 
but I am ready. I am ready to speak for thee, to en- 
dure persecution for thee, to live for thee. I am 
ready; I am ready." 

244 



Mtttmbtx X5. 

HIS CHANGELESS LOVE. 

VOTJ have felt the warmth of Christ's love pouring 
like sunshine upon your life. You believe that 
he loves you to-day. Yet sometimes you fear for the 
future. "Will his love always last?" you ask with 
trembling. " May he never weary of me ?" Nay ; 
he loveth unto the end. Other things about you will 
fade and die. Other joys will perish out of your 
heart. Other loves will grow cold. But the love 
of Christ which throbs about you now will never 
change. 

Bwttnfter 16. 

KEEP THE DOOR OP MY LIPS. 

MO prayer should be oftener spoken by us than that 
of David in one of his Psalms : " Set a watch, O 
Lord, before my mouth ; keep the door of my lips." 
There is nothing in all our life to which most of us 
give less heed than to our words. We let them fly 
from our lips as the leaves fly from the trees when the 
autumn winds blow. Many people seem to think that 
words scarcely have a moral character. They watch 
their acts, their conduct, and then give full license to 
their tongues. This is not right. A true Christian 

245 



MettmUx 16. 

should have a Christian tongue. Words have terrific 
power for harm if they are wrong words, and blessed, 
immortal power for good if they are holy words. We 
need to pray continually that God would keep the 
door of our lips and set a watch before our mouth. 
Only love should be permitted to interpret itself in 
speech. Bitterness and all evil should be restrained. 

©ecem&er XT. 

REMEMBERING KINDNESSES. 

A T the time when help, deliverance, or favor comes 
to us our hearts are very warm with grateful feel- 
ing. "We will never forget this kindness," we say. 
But do we never forget it? We remember injuries 
done to us. We all know how hard it is to forget a 
wrong that another has inflicted upon us. Sometimes 
we say, with martyr-like air, " I forgive him, but I can 
never forget the injury." Slights and cutting words 
and unkindnesses and neglects — how well we remem- 
ber these ! But have we as good memories for favors, 
kindnesses, blessings ? Ought we not to have ? Shall 
we not train ourselves rather to forget the hurts we re- 
ceive as the lake forgets the ploughing of the keel 
through its waters, and to remember with faithful 
gratitude every smallest kindness done to us? 

246 



Wcttmhev 18* 

THE EXPRESSION OP LOVE. 

TPHERE are friendships which are true enough, but 
which are not hallowed by those graceful atten- 
tions and tokens of thoughtfulness which cost so little 
and yet are worth so much. The kindly feeling in the 
heart ought to find some way to utter itself — a way in 
keeping, too, with the delicacy and beauty of the sen- 
timent. The affection ought to exhibit itself in amia- 
bility, in gentleness, in thoughtfulness. We ought not 
to be so chary of our kind words. 

©ecemfar 19* 

OUR MESSAGE TO SOULS. 

YMHEN you go out to seek the lost, tell them that 
God in heaven loves them. Tell them that his 
heart yearns for them as a mother's bosom yearns for 
her absent wandering child. No matter how sunken 
in sin, how depraved, how completely the divine image 
has been blotted from the soul, how ruined the life may 
be, still bend over the wreck of manhood or woman- 
hood and whisper the blessed message, "God loves 
you." Tell it so earnestly that it cannot fail to be 
listened to, understood and believed. This is the 
message of life and hope. 

247 



Mtttmbex 20. 

FORGETTING PROMISES. 

A PROMISE made to a child or to the lowliest, most 
unworthy person should be kept, no matter how 
hard it may be to keep it. " I entirely forgot my 
promise," one says, as if forgetting it were much less 
a sin than deliberately breaking it. We have no 
right to forget any promise we make to another. If 
we cannot trust our memory, we should make note of 
our promises and engagements on paper, and then keep 
them scrupulously, on the very minute. To break even 
the slightest promise is grievously to wrong and hurt 
another life. 

©ecemfor 21. 

NOT PAINTING UNDER TRIAL. 

'THERE are some people who give up and lose all 
their courage and faith the moment any trouble 
comes. They cannot endure trial. Sorrow utterly 
crushes them. They think they cannot go on again. 
There have been lives broken down by affliction which 
have never Tisen again out of the dust. There have 
been mothers, happy and faithful before, who have lost 
one child out of their home, and have never cared for 
life again, letting their home grow dreary and desolate 

248 



ffiecemfrer 2X* 

and their other children go uncared for, as they sat with 
folded hands in the abandonment of their uncomforted 
grief. There have been men with bright hopes who 
have suffered one defeat or loss and have never risen 
again out of the dust. But God's word teaches that 
we should never faint under any trial. God chastens 
us, not to crush us, but for our profit, that we may be 
partakers of his holiness. To faint, therefore, under 
chastening is disloyalty to God. We should accept 
the affliction with reverence, and turn the whole en- 
ergy of our life into the channels of obedience and 
service. 

©ecemfor 22. 

WHAT WE SHALL BE. 

TXTE have in us a life that when fully manifested will 
be altogether like Christ's. Christ's glory will 
shine in our faces. His beauty will glow in our souls. 
No matter how imperfect, how faulty, how full of blem- 
ishes we may be now, we are to be u like him " when 
the divine life in our souls bursts out into all its rich- 
ness and fullness of manifestation. With such a hope 
in our hearts, should we not keep ourselves from every- 
thing unworthy of such dignity and holiness, and strive 
to reach " whatsoever things are lovely " ? 

249 



Mtctmhtx 23. 

MAKE THE LAST DAY BEAUTIFUL. 

'THE last day a friend was with us is always sacred 
in memory. The last walk we had together, the 
last talk, the last book we read, the last letter, the last 
good-bye, we never forget. We all want to leave sweet 
memories behind us in the hearts of our friends when 
we are gone from earth. We want our names to be 
fragrant in the homes on whose thresholds, in whose 
halls, our footfalls are wont to be heard. We can 
make sure of this only by so living always that any 
day would be a suitable and beautiful last day, leav- 
ing only tender recollections. We must make no bit- 
terness for another life any day, because that day may 
be our last and that memory the one that will stay in 
the heart when we are gone. 

Mtctmbtx 24 

O CHRIST, FORGIVE ! 

r\H, blessed ministry of true Christian speech ! May 
God forgive us for the abuse or misuse of the 
glorious gift ! If word of ours has ever hurt a tender 
spirit or tarnished a white soul or turned any away 
from the right path, O Christ, forgive us and help us 

250 



Wtttmhtx 24* 

to undo the wrong ! Give us grace and wisdom that 
we may use the gift of speech to honor thee and bless 
the world. 

©ecemtor 25* 

on Christ's birthday. 

TT is Christ's birthday. In among all our festivities 
should come sweet thoughts of the love of God. 
The gifts we may receive should make us think of the 
greatest gift of all, when God gave his Son. Let us 
all try to make our Christmas very full of memories 
of Christ. Let the blessed love of Christ make a 
glad Christmas in our hearts, helping us to be like 
Christ himself in love, unselfishness and forgiveness. 

ECHOING CHRISTMAS SONGS. 

^IXTHAT Christ is to us we ought, in our human meas- 
ure, to be to others. Christmas means love. 
Christ came to our world to pour divine kindness on 
weary, needy, perishing human lives. The Christmas 
spirit in our hearts should send us out on the same 
errand. There is need everywhere for love's ministry. 
We should learn the true Christmas lesson of gentle, 
thoughtful kindness to those we love and to all we 
meet in life's busy ways. 

251 



©ecem&er 26* 

CHRISTMAS LESSONS. 

pHEISTMAS should teach us to be Christ to others 
all about us, that from our very garments may flow 
the virtue that shall heal and bless all who touch us. 
There are few people whom God calls to do great 
things for him, but the best thing most of us can do 
in this world is to live out a real, simple, beautiful, 
strong Christian life in our allotted place. Thus in 
our little measure we shall repeat the life of the Mas- 
ter himself, showing men some feeble reflection of his 
sweet and loving face, and doing in our imperfect way 
a few of the lovely things he would do if he were here 
himself in our place. 

Mmwfotx 27* 

DARKENED ROOMS. 

n OD carries many of his children into the darkened 
rooms of affliction, and when they come forth again 
there is more of the beauty of Christ in their souls. 
We get many of the best things of our lives out of 
suffering and pain. It may be the easiest, but it surely 
is not the best, life and the most blessed that is free 
from trial. The crown is not given to untried 
lives. 

252 



IBecem&er 28. 

POWER OF FAITH. 

C HALL we not try to learn the secret of power in 
Christian life and Christian work? We can do a 
great deal more for Christ and to bless the world than 
most of us are doing. It is more faith that we need. 
Faith links us to Christ, so that wherever we go in his 
name he goes with us, and whatever we do for him his 
power rests upon us. Every Christian life ought to be 
a force among men, a witness for Christ, an influence 
for blessing and good. Let us get nearer to Christ, 
that he can use us for doing the greater things. 

Becem&er 29. 

CONSECRATION OF WILL. 

HPHE highest reach of faith is loving, intelligent con- 
secration of all our life to the will of God. We 
are to have desires, but they should be held in subordi- 
nation to God's desires and thoughts for us. We are 
to have plans, but they should be laid down at God's 
feet, that he may either let us work them out for him 
or show us his plan for us instead of our own. Com- 
plete consecration of our will to God's — that is the 
standard of Christian living at which we are to aim. 
Tennyson puts this well in " In Memoriam :" 

253 



December 29. 

" Our wills are ours, we know not how ; 
Our wills are ours, to make them thine." 

They are ours — we are sovereign in our power of will. 
They are to be made God's, but we must make them 
his; we must voluntarily yield ourselves to God. 
That is consecration. 



©ecem&er 30. 

HIDDEN BLESSINGS. 

"P VERY hard duty that lies in your path, that you 
would rather not do, that it will cost you pain or 
struggle or sore effort to do, has a blessing in it. Not 
to do it, at whatever cost, is to miss the blessing. 
Every hard piece of road on which you see the Mas- 
ter's shoe-prints and along which he bids you follow 
him surely leads to a blessing, which you cannot get 
if you cannot go over the steep, thorny path. Every 
point of battle to which you come, where you must 
draw your sword and fight with the enemy, has in 
it a possible victory which will prove a rich bless- 
ing to your life. Every heavy load that you are 
called to lift hides in itself some strange secret of 
strength. 

254 



THE BLESSING OP PENITENCE. 

T^HE memory of transgression will always give pain. 
Penitence is not the best thing; innocence is far 
better. But, having sinned, penitence is infinitely bet- 
ter than despair. And even out of the sin, the shame 
and the sorrow God can bring blessing for ourselves 
and for others. While we cannot undo our wrong 
deeds, God can keep them from undoing us, and can 
even bring good out of them in some strange way, if 
we commit the whole matter to him. 

255 



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